AgnosticismandReligion 10000482

C O PY R I GH T 1 896 , BY
C H A RL E S SC R I BN E R S '
SO N S
N u rin u u h laws;
J S Cu sh m g
. .
'
Co .
—B e rw i ck 8: Smi th
N or w o o d M ass
. U SA
. . .
C O N TE N T S
P A RT I
H U! LE Y SC I E N TI F I C A G N O S T I C I SM
P H IL O S O P H I C A L A G N O S T I C I S M
PA RT I I I
SP I R I T U A L RE L I G I ON : I TS E V O L U TI O N
SE N CE
PART I
H U! L E Y A N D SCI E N TI F I C
A G N O ST I C I SM
Th ou f
oo l, th a t w h ich tho u so west is n ot
quic k e n e d, e xcep t it die .

H U! L E Y AN D SC I E N T I F I C
A G N O ST I CI SM 1
I think I can at t h e be g in n in g
D O n ot ,
of this new academic year better mini ster ,
to yo u r spiritual n e e ds than by inviting

y ou in
, the solemn calm o f this time and
place t o reflect fo r an hour with me upon
,
‘
the vital doctrines o f the distinguished

investigator and thinker who during the
summer has been snatched by death from
the ranks o f science o f which for more than
,
a third o f a century he has been a fruitful

cultivator a doughty defender and an il
, ,
lu st r io u s ornament I t was o n S aturday

.
,
June 29t h t hat P rofessor Huxley passed

,
away encountering the great mystery

,
which closes the continuous mystery o f

life a few weeks after filling o u t the psalm
’
i st s measure o f threescore years and ten .
His death is a severe and but for his work

”
1 An ess deliver e d b ef or e
a ddr th e st u de n t s of Co r
n ell U n iv e r sit y Su n day e v e n in N o ve m b e r 3 , 18 95 :
, g ,
3
4 SCIENTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
’
it would be an irreparable loss to the r e ,
public o f thought and science And in ,
voicing t he sincere regret we all feel at

the removal of this brilliant and devoted
worker for the enlargement and defence
of human knowledge I desire while dis
, ,
charging what you will perhaps permit me

to regard as a corporate trust to express , ,
if it is not presumptuous my personal ap ,
preciation of his abilities and att ainments

and my respect fo r the integrity o f his
character the nobility of his aims and ,
the apostolic zeal and earnestness with

which h e devoted himself to the work o f
his life I emb race this opportunity the
:
more eagerly as I am constrained to dissent

from some o f Huxley s views ’
.
Thomas Henry Huxley was born o n the

4t h O f M ay 1 82 5
, His e arly education
.
was somewhat irregular While still a

.
bo y he had a strong desire to be a mechan

,
ical engineer and if his architectonic g e

,
nius clear intellect and enthusiastic and

, ,
aggressive energy had been enlisted in the

engineering profession it is impossible to
,
say what he might not have achieved but

I much doubt if the modern world whose ,
civilization is nourished by heat would ,

SCIEN TIFIC A GNO S TICISM 5
sti ll be guilty of the st upid and wanton

waste of nine tenths o f the e n ergy stored
up in coal for the purpose o f making the
remaining tenth available But it was
.
not destined that Huxley should solve

this still unsolved problem ; At an early
a g e he enter e d upon the study o f medicine ,
and in the first M E examination at the

. .
University o f L ondon he took hono r s in

anatomy and physiology H is taste fo r .
engineering did n o t leave him ! the arena

for its exercise was merely shifted from the
inorgani cmacrocosm to the organic micro
c o sm,
— from nature t o the living body .
He cared littl e about medicine as the art

o f healing ; the only subj ect in his pr o
fe ssio n al course which really and deeply
interested him was physiology and phys,
io l o g y co nceived as the mechanical engi

“
”
neering o f l i v1ng machines With the
.
genius o f a Watt or E dison he set him

self to work o u t the unity o f plan in the
structures of the innumerable throngs o f
!
diverse living beings and the modifications

m ade in the same fundamental mechanism
to serve diverse ends F ortune fav ored
.
his t astes an d ambition The captain o f

.
H e r M ajesty s ship R a t t le sn a k e which had

’
,
6 SCIEN TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
been ordered to make a surveying voyage

in the south ern seas wanted for assistant
,
surgeon a m an who knew somethi ng o f

science ; and through the influence o f S ir
John R ichardson the distinguished natu
,
r al ist and Arctic explorer Huxley was ,
given the appointment F or more than .
— —
four years from 1 846 to 1 85 0 h e stud
ie d in N ature s great biological laboratory
’
,
as Darwin and Hooker had done before

him spending most o f his time o n the
,
coasts of Australia and N ew Guinea .
The communications he sent home won

him a reputation in the scientific world ;
and in 185 1 he was elected a F ellow o f the
R oyal S ociety He now desired to O btain
.
a professorship o f either P hysiology o r

C omparative Anatomy ; but he was u n su c
ce ssfu l in all his applicatio ns With hi s .
friend Tyndall he turned his eyes to the

,
N ew World ; but the Un iv e r sit y o f T o

'
ronto in which at the same time they be

,
came candidates for the vacant chairs o f

P hysi cs and N atural History “
would not ,
”
look at either o f them I n 1 85 4 how .
,
ever S ir Henry De la Beche t h e Director

, ,
General of the Geological S urvey offered ,
H u xley the post of P al aeontologist and L ect

SCIEN TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 7
u r e r on History wh ich F orbes had

N atural
just resigned in the R oyal S chool o f M ines
in order t o accept the chair o f N atural His
tory in E din burgh University Huxley
.
was divided between his allegiance to

physiology and his desire for t h e pr o fe s
r
so r sh ip He frankly told S ir Henry t hat

.
he did not care for fossils and that he

would give up N atural History as soon as
he could get a chair o f P h ysl o l o g y But
“
.
,
as General Grant said o n publishing his,
M emoirs after having determined never

to write anything for publicatio n : There “
are but few important e vents in the a ffairs

”
of men brought about by their own choice .
N ot only did Huxley become L ecturer on

N atural History but h e held the o ffice for
,
thirty o n e years ; and o f his scientific work

-
a large part is pal ac o n t o l o g ic al ! I ndeed ,
he took the whole field of zo ology fo r his

province and it is the verdict of Haeckel
that he was the foremost zo ologist in E ng
land This is not the place to describe his
.
volumes o r even to mention his celebrated

memoirs After the publication o f the
.
”
O rigin o f S pecies his investigatio ns
,
were largely guided by the D arwinian

hypothesis o f which his results formed
,
8 SCIENTIFIC A GN O S TICISM
a striki n g and substantial verification .
While h i s research embraced both verte

br ate and invertebrate life he gave special ,
attention to the structure and functions o f

”
vertebrate animals and he w o n renown by

his brilliant elucidations o f the int ricacies
o f their mechanism His growing fame
.
procured him membership and office in

many learned institutions and scientific
associations ; and in 1 883 he was crowned
with the highest O fficial distinction t o
which a British scien t ist can aspire the ,
presidency O f the R oyal Society of ,
which for t e n years he had been the sec

r e t ar
y I
. n 1 8 8 5 he resigned his p r o fe s
so r sh ip ! at sixty , he used to say e very ,
“
scientific man s h o u l d commit the happy
despatch and all his other official posts ,
and soon afterwards r e moved fr o m L o n

'
do n to E astbourne .But though he had

,
well earned the ease and quiet of retire

m ent it is the last decade of his life which
,
is notably marked by those d ivagations

int o politics ethics and especiall y theol
, ,
o
gy,
which m ade Huxley s name o n e of
’
the best known in current literature .
These incursions were often resisted but ,
such was the advantage of his c o n t r o v e r

SCIEN TIFIC A GNO S TICISM 9
si al position and his skill in attack and

defence that he was seldom worsted and
,
”
never vanquished though he had among ,
his adversaries some o f the subtlest dis

p u t an t s in the E nglish speaking world -
.
F o r Huxley was not merely a seeker of

truth he was her knight and sworn cham
,
pion her defender and her advocate To

, .
”
carry the platform o f science with t h e
“
“
intelligent electors o f the commonwealth
was I think his dearest ambiti on But
, , .
he would have been as good a champion

“ ”
o f any other platform which he had
once accepted with t h at inte n se intel
lectual impulsiveness he inherited from
‘
his mother I n de e d I suspect that the
.
,
Genius whic h presides over the nativity

o f E nglishmen m a y have intended him for
leader o f the opposition to Her M aj esty s ’
government in the House o f C ommons ;

“
but the accident o f a medical brother
”
in law
-
made him a biologist ; an d so
it happened th at the combativeness the ,
genius fo r debate the skill in attack and

,
defence the courage and audacity and all

, ,
the splendid fighting qualities with which

N atur e had e n dowe d this ardent and icon
o cl ast ic radical were destined to find a
10 SCIEN TIFIC A GN CS TI CI SM
field of activity in the advocacy o f sc ie n

t ifi c knowledge and the defiance and de
n u n c iat i o n o f conventional C hrist ianity .
He says himself that he could not count

even his scientific attainments and honors
“
as marks of success if I could not hope
that I had somewhat helped that move
ment O f opinion which has been called the
”
N ew R eformation He dearly loved a
.
tilt with the ecclesiastical opponents of this

progressive theology And not even in .
the British P arliament was there a more

formidable controversialist in E n gland
“
Al w ays courte ous he had at command the

,
resour ces of ridicule and sarcasm warmly

devoted to truth he possessed an unerri ng
,
sense for falsehood and error master o f a

lucid and trenchant style a skilfu l dia ,
l e c t ic ian and a wonderfu l adept in t h e art

,
o f luminous explanation and popular ex
position he was at home in science he

, ,
had travelled the highways o f modern

philosophy and literature and as Burke , ,
-
said of C harles Townshend he knew how ,
to bring together within a short time all

, ,
that was necessary to establish to illus ,
trate and to decorate that side o f th e

,
question he supported N o r was this all . .

S CIEN TIFIC A GN O S TICISM 11
'
Th e fi
atmosphere o f de bat e and c o n
st r o n g
tention w as to H uxley like t h e air o f the

sea o r mountain His zest in the pursuit .
o f knowledge was never qu i t e so keen as

’
when the game led across the enemy s pre
serve He had indeed the ideali st s faith
.
, ,
’
t h at t r u t h would prevail but he delighted ,
t o abound in militant works f o r the r e

moval of obstacles that impeded her vi oto
r io u s march D arwin passed his life in
.
serene Contemplation and studious investi

t i n o f nat u re interrupted only by the
g a o ,
thrill o f fresh insight and the ecstasy o f

new discoveries Huxley liked research .
t o o ; but he cared more for the general

acceptance o f the results achieved by
scientists and his chief delight was in
,
compelling the public to assent t o them ,
unless as o n e might sometimes suspect

, ,
he derived still greater satisfaction from

confuting pretentious critics and ruth
lessly exposing their ignorance I t is .
‘
this missionary spirit which distinguished

Huxley from all the scientists o f his gen
c ration He was the great apostle o f t h e
.
modern gospel o f science And as he h ad .
the pr e a ch e r s e ar n e st n e ss in proclaiming
’
this e vangel and the controversialist s de ’

12 SCIEN TIFIC A GN O S TICISM ’
termination to make it prevail so he had ,

’
the dogmatist s immovable confidence that
his creed was t h e only orthodox doctrine
.
and that it was destined to overcome all

rival dogmas as the rod o f M oses sw al
lowed u p the rods of the lesser magicians .
He was of the same breed as the t h e o l o

gians he assa iled I t matters not that
.
theirs was the faith once delivered to the

saints and his the creed gradua lly elabo
rated by the scientists I n his te m per.
and mental h abit in his attitude towards

,
what he believed the truth Huxley was as ,
veritable a dogmatist as any Of h is theo

logical an t ag o n l st s though they banned
,
what he blessed and though he was neithe r

of P aul or P eter but heartil y wishe d a
,
plague on both their houses A scientist .
by profession and achiev ement but i n ,
w ar dl y a theological iconoclast it is not ,
Strange that with his gifts and under the

,
stimulus of favoring circumstances Hux ,
ley should have become the most dist in

u ish e d protagonist in the fierce scientific
g
and theological controv ersies of his gener
ation He was still a young man
.
— only
thirty fo u Tyears of age when the bitte r
- -
warfare began in which for the remaining

half o f his life he drank delight of battle
!
with h is peers , J
F ar the rm g pl a ins o f w in dy Tr oy
on g in .
The signal and the occasion o f the im

pending storm was the appearance in 1 859 , ,
o f D arwin s
“
O rigin o f S pecies
’
The
tempest which this work aroused in t h e
intellectual world was withou t a para llel
since the time when Galileo whom ! sad ,
irony o f fate ! ) the youthful M ilt on found

blind and a prisoner o f the I nquisition ,
had revolutionized the thought o f C hris

t e n do m by inaugurating the C opernican
astronomy The P rospero who in his
.
,
innocency had conj ured up this storm

,
was a modest retiring diffide n t country

'
, ,
gentleman peaceful as a ! uaker dreadin g

, ,
contro versy avoiding society, and devot

,
i n g his entire energy ! whenever a fragile

constitution permitted him to labor ) to
harmless O bserv ation o f the ways of plants
and animals and innocent reflection upon
the mode o f their development This .
interpreter o f nature was distinguishe d

for his caution his patience and ab ove
, , ,
all his fair mindedness N ow as a result

,
-
.
,
o f 111 8 study and meditation he had com e ,

to the conclusion that biological species ,
which had hitherto passed fo r immutable

cr e ations we r e the slowly consolidated
,
growths of changing varie t ies The fer .
ment which Darwin thus cast into the

mass O f current beliefs was in its logical
’
essence identical with Galileo s e p a r Si
mu ove The astronomer asserted that the
earth moved ; the biologist that s pecies
changed But D arwin was m ore than a
.
mode rn H e r a cl e it u s championing the h e r

e sy o f f lux l I l opposition to the orthodox
tradition of fi xit y as the law of the organ ic
world O thers too had dreamt of the
.
, ,
natural t r an sm fit at io n of species as an
alternative to the miracle o f creation .
D arwin endeavored to turn the dream i nto

a demonstration His is the peculiar
.
glory o f actually showi n g by an al Og y o f

,
the selective breeding p ractised by hor

t ic u lt u r ist s and agric u l turists how the ,
variations in the species O f plants and

animals which are constantly turning up
are under the influence o f what he called
,
N atural S election preserved and then

, ,
transmitted with modifications to de

sc e n da n t s until by successive accumu la
,
tions they are consolidate d into species

SCIENTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 15
entirely distinct from t h e or ig i nal forms .
M an has m ade new vari eties o f the horse ,
o f t h e pig e o n j o f the rose — so distinct ,
that a naturalist from another planet

would describe them as different species ,
by the simple method o f breeding

exclusively from the individuals which
happened to possess the characteristics
desired I n the formation of true s pe
.
cies the struggle for life tak es the pl a ce

,
o f man s selective action with the result

’
,
that while in the competition ill favored

,
-
var i eties are exterminated those organ

‘
isms po ssessing modifications beneficial

“ ”
to themselves those which are fittest
,
in the given environment survive and as , , ,
in the case o f cultivated plant s and domes

t ic at e d a n imals they perpet u ate their pe
,
cu l iar it ie s until in the course of many

,
generations there emerges the result o f

,
new an d distinct species .
S uch is the essence of Darwinism or ,
the doctr ine o f the origin o f species L ike .
all great and fruitful theories it i s simple ,
enough when once pointed o u t E very .
naturalist was already familiar with t h e

fact s o f var iability o f the struggle fo r
,
existence o f adaptation to environment

, ,
SCIEN TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
and of the inheritance o f parental charac

t e r ist ic s . B u t no on e before Darwin sus
p e c t e d th at by a n
, e w collocation O f these
well k n o w n ph e n o m e n a a scientific solu
-
f ,
tion m ight be found for the mysterious

problem o f the origination o f species I n a .
short time the leaders and before long t h e ,
rank and file of zoologists botanists and

, , ,
pal aeontologists accepted the D arwinian

doct rine at least as a working hypothesis
'
.
,
The only alt ernative was the belief in the

creation o f species ; but as the C reator is
the first cause o f all things and science ,
seeks second or intermediary or natural

c a u se s it was R
,
~
eally no scientific e xpl a
nation to say that species were created .
D ar wi nism assumed no c au se S but s u ch

as could be proved to be actuall y at work .
I t had therefore the essential requisite

, ,
of every scientific hypothes is Whether .
it was adequate to explain the fa c t of the

r iSe o f species was another matter And .
,
for o n e Huxley while accepting the h y

, ,
t h e i s showed that its logical fo u n da

p o s ,
tion was incomplete so long as the v ari

e t i e s produced by selective br eeding were ,
w hile true species were not more o r less ,
fertile with o n e another .

SCIEN TIF I C A GN O S TICI SM’
17
It is n o t fo r me t o express an opinion o n
the validity o f the Darwinian theory I .
suppose howe ver that no naturalist would

, ,
n o w deny that w i t hin ce r t a in limit s n e w
species are originated by the survival and

consolidation o f such variations s pontane ,
o u sl
y arising in organisms as
, may be use
fu l to their possessors in the struggle for
life Assuming therefore Darwinism to
.
, ,
be true I trust I may be permitted t o o b

,
serve that the origin o f species remains !
almost as mu ch a mystery as ever though ,
the mystery has been thrown a stage

further back . O rganisms differentiating
themselves continuously along particular
lines for indefinite periods of time must ,
under the law o f the survival o f the fittest ,
infall ibly give rise t o new species But .
pray Observe that t he su r viva l of t he fitt e st

do e s n o t a cc o u n t for t he a r r iva l of t he fit t e st .
That self evolving organism on which the

-
,
entire issue is dependent is a miracle which

,
no naturalist has as yet transmuted into

science . N atural S election — a struggle
for life and sur v ival of the fittest

simply sifts the material furnished by the
variabil ity of p lants and animals The .
question then arises by what agency those

18 SCIEN TIFIC A GN O S TICISM ’
variations are originated shaped and con , ,
t in u e d so that they are capable of produc

ing thos e speci fic forms which under the ,
sifting of natural selection actually emerge , .
Darwin himself was not insensible to t h e

heavy weight of this unexplained mystery .
I n a letter to Huxley written N ovember ,
2 5 1 8 5 9 he expressed his perplexity con

, ,
c ise l and aptly though somewhat pro

y ,
fan e ly in the followi ng query :

, What the
devil determines each particular variation ?
What makes a tuft of feathers come o n
”
a c o ok s hea d o r moss on a m o ss rose ?
’
,
-
I f D arwin explained the appearance o f new

species he did fic t expla i n the emergence
,
of thi s di fi e r e n t iat io n of the organism

much less the origin of the organi sm itself
from which new species take their rise .
”
The O rigin o f S pecies is in fact n o t A
, ,
the Genesis but the E xodu so flivin g forms .
I t te ll s how a chosen seed having been led ,
Ou t o f the house of bondage the bondage ,
to ancestral type waged a long struggle

,
against the inhospitality o f its environment

and the attacks o f its rivals un til at length ,
it reached the promised goal — the stature ,

'
o f an independent race the transmutatio n ,
into a new species .

SCIENTIFIC A CN CS TI OI SM 19
O ne thing , however i s indisputable

, .
T h e Darwinian hypothes is clearly belonged

to the realm o f sc i ence I f ever there was
.
’
a passionless and abstract theory D ar w in s ,
doctrine O f the origination o f species would

seem to have deserved that characterizatio n .
And certain ly no o n e but a master in the

biological sciences should have presum ed
to estimate th e validity o r fix the lim its
, ,
of a theory resting o n such a mass o f o h

se r v a t io n s and sustained by so many lines
,
o f co n verging evidence as those which

,
Darwin brought to the support O f the

theory of N atural S election B ut oftenest .
the unexpected happens — and this time

,
the unwarranted The ignorance bigotry

.
, ,
and blind passion o f the m o b who con

de m n e d S ocrates now took the judgment
seat for the hearing o f D arwin Dragged .
from the study and the laboratory into

the garish light O f public notoriety his ,
scientific hypothesis became the scandal o f

parlors and the ridicule o f clubs w hile ,
press platform and pulpit thundered with

, ,
a confused turmoil o f refutation and in

v e c t iv e in which were mingled outrageous
,
denunciations of the simple naturalist him

self as a dangerous godless and even de
, ,
20 SCIEN TIFIC A GNO S TICISM
generate member o f the human species .
But if unthi nking orthodoxy and prim pro

p r ie t
y w ere horrified free thinkin g radi
,
-
c al ism went ma d with delight Sh e wildly .

-
clasped D ar w inism to her bosom as the

hopeful parent of infidelity materialism , ,
and atheism What with friends and foes

.
/ ,
the plain craft o f sc i ence had never before

got between such a S cylla and C har ybdis !
But why all this public int erest in the
n e w theory O f organic species you will ask ? ,
The mass of people w e all know are not , ,
as a rule m u ch concerned about abstract

inquiries ! uite true ; and I will say at
.
once that it w a s n o t Darwin s theory of the ’
origin o f species which convulsed society ,
but the inferences deductions and a ssOc i

, ,
ated ideas which that theory suggeste d

concerning matters o f vit al and permanent
interest to humanity H uman reason de .
clares that G o d is the ground o f t h e uni

verse and the moral and religious sense
,
gives assurance that He is the F ather of our

Spirits N ow this primary belief in the
“
.
,
beginning God ,
”
— this datum of con
,
sc io u sn e ss as I may call it has in the lapse , ,
o f many C hristian cent u ries become insep ,
ar abl
y entwined with a venerable tradition
SCIEN TIFIC A GN O S TICISM 21
of creation according to which spe cies were

,
inst antaneously originated immutably ,
fixed and per manently distinguished R e ad

,
.
once more the beautiful le gend with which

the Bible opens ,a legend so poetically
’
vivid that Darwin s cont emporaries still
took it for history as men devoid o f culture
,
and literary feeling do to this day read ,
this story I r epeat and you will see that the

, ,
writer conceives o fthe species o fplants and

animals as sudden and unchange able crea
tions with metes and bounds for each and
, ,
an impassable chasm between man an d every

other species This legen dary account o f
.
the genesis of things had unfortunately , ,
embosomed itself not only in theology but

, ,
I n the religious thought and feeling o f

C hristendom And when t he O rigin of
.
S pecies appeared the church had not yet

,
recovered from the r u de shock administered

to the orthodox belief in impulsive crea
tions by the uniformitarian geology o f
”
L yell s P r i n p l e s
“
I n sheer self defence
’
-
.
,
therefore religious minds felt impelled to

,
attack the evolutionary biology which Dar

w m proclaimed and still more the re v o , ,
l u t io n ar y anthropology which loomed up

behind it I f species were n o t immutable
.
,
if related species were c o descendants o f -
the same ancestors then man and the apes ,
— o h unutterable horror ! Y o u smile at

,
the mention or even at the suggestion o f

,
“
the pithecoid origin o f mankind ! But it

was a stone o f stumbling to able an d de
v o u t men of the last generation What .
,
they asked would become o f the so u l o f

, ,
sin of the atonement

, nay o ft h e C reator , ,
Himself thus discharged o f s o m u ch o f

the activity hitherto imposed upon Him ?
I t was indeed an awful crisis o f thought
, , .
And the travail and pathos of it will

long be remembered But you who look .
back o n it as to a remote period with

, ,
the fresh eyes o f youth will not miss ,
the comic by play that mingled with the

-
tragedy Y o u will see society divided into

.
two heraldic camps o n e b attling for an , _
an cestor a little lower than t h e angels and

the other for an ancestor a little higher
than the apes You will see cool men lose
.
their heads and men of good breeding part

,
with their manners and men not hitherto ,
conspicuous for piety suddenly grown je al

o u s about the honor of the L ord of Hosts .
And all the while it is forgotten that man

is what he is howsoever he came to be what
he is and that in G o d all t h in g s live and

'
'
move an d have t heir being though His

“
children are forever m isreadin g the w ay

I n which He does His wondrous works .
I t was all over with science ! I n this _
fierce and indiscriminate polemic t h e Dar ,
w in ian hypothesis retreated from view be

fore the spectres which it had evoked in
the imagination o f the excited disputants
and the terrified pu blic The theory of
.
the origination of species by n atural se

lection was a generalization addressed to
naturalists ; but instead o f r e ceiving a
dispassionate examinat ion at the hands o f
experts it became the occasion o f a free
,
fight over the entire area o f that N o M an s ’
L and which lies between modern S cience

and traditional Theology O ne party ap.
pealed t o the sure word of revelation the ,

‘
other to the inerrant record o f nature .
The points o f issue were not clearly de

fined their number multiplied as the b it
t e r n e ss o f the disputants increased ; and
in time Dar w inism became identified with
a mass o f biological psychological ethical
, , ,
metaphysical and theological speculatio n s

, ,
having little or nothing in common but a

gene tic or historical method o f treatment ,
and a content marked by opposition to

current belief and orthodox C hristianity .
Huxl y
__
e at an early stage descende d into
this arena with alacrity a n d keen delight .
Dar w in gave him the sobriquet of M y

”
General Agent He became the leader
.
of the radical hosts While retaining his

.
speculative doubt o f D arwin s biological ’
hypothesis he was the head and front of

,
t h e D arwinians I have already described

.
his splendid controversial powers ; I may

!
say here th at he was too good a debater ,
too intense a partisan too strong a hater

, ,
to put himself sympathetically at the

~
standpoint o f his O pponents and lead ,
them by kindly tact and timely su gg e s

tion o f higher truth o u t of th e bondage
of error in which he believe d the m be
nighted captives His militant spirit w a s
.
too strong for his peda gogical instinct .
His genius was not constructive but icon ,
Ocl ast ic
‘
He delighted to dare to defy

.
, ,
“
to destroy ; in dealing with persons not

of his way of thinking his aim was less ,
instruction than refutation ; and I sup

pose nothing gave him great er pleasure
than to cleave an antagonist with the
sword of his logic unles s it was to be
,
!
wilder him with the rapi er o f his irony .
I do not o f cou r se mean to disparage the

, ,
value o f disc ussion M y point is merely

.
that if Huxley could have had more sym

,
pathy with t h e P hilistines , his argumen t s ,
though losing something o f th eir point

and dash would have gai ned in illumina
,
tion e fficacy and fruitfulness But o n e

, , .
must take him as he was ; and it was the

nature o f his analytic genius t o revel in
antinomies and the method of his debate
,
was to impale antagonists between the

“
horns of an either — or
”
L e t us how.
,
ever not forget that b esides the thesis and

,
antithesis o f the controversialist there is ,
the synthesis o f the comprehensive thinker ,
“ ”
and that the either or o f angry de
bate 1s O ften cancelled by the both
“
and
o f cal m reflection Whether the issues
.
between Huxley and his adversaries may

be so resolved we must now proceed to
,
consider .
I think that the many litigious suits in

which Huxley was engaged as advocate
fo r natural kno w ledge may all be em
braced in three categories which though , ,
related we may nevertheless clearly dis

,
t in g u ish F irst o f all ther e is the case

.
,
26 SCIEN TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
of S cience ve r su s R evelation ; secon dl y ,
the case o f E volution ver su s C reation ;

and thirdly the case o f P ithecus or the
, ,
Ape ver su s Adam The fi rst o f these.
cases engrossed the latter years o f his

life ; the other two claimed his attention
at the outbreak of the war over Darwin
ism The three taken together afforded
.
, ,
abundant scope for the exhibition o f that

mental attitude w hich Huxley first de sig
n at ed Agnosticism And though his creed
.
as an Agnostic was not exhausted either

in idea or in fact by his v iews o n these
‘
disputed points these were the only as

,
p e c t s of it which he ever full y developed ,
o r in which he seemed sincerely and in
tensely interested I shall have to allude

.
to other elements Of the Agnostic faith

hereafter M eantime let u s see how the
.
-
eponymous Agnostic filled h is mi le in

those vital contests between po pul ar be
lief and evolutionary science to whi ch I
have just referred I t w il l be conveni ent
.
to begin with the case of E volution ve r su s

C reation
.
That God is the u l timate ground and

source of all things whether they be liv,
ing or inert thinking or unthinking seems

, ,
to me not merely a conclusion reached by

reflectio n an d in fe r e n c e but an intuitive ,
belief constitutive o f intelligence itself .
M an because he is rational must believe

, ,
in God as Universal F irst C ause atheism

is in the strictest sense o f the term irra
, ,
t io n al S cience ho w ever i s I n quest not

.
, , ,
of the ultimate groun d an d reason of exist

ence bu t o f the so called sec o n dary c au ses
,
-
,
the proximate agencies and circum

stances by which things have been mod
,
ifi e d in the natural order of events I t is .

,
therefore n o t an explanation o f the sc ie n

,
t ifi c order to say that species of animals

and plants were created by God The .
proposition may be perfe ctly true and

yet in connection with science totally
, ,
irrelevant What the biologist seeks t o

.
discover is the sequence of the natural

phenomena by which it has been brought
about that species have become what they
are And for the definite purpose the
.
,
limite d inquiry which science sets before

,
itself as the goal of its endeavor it mat ,
ters not I say it with no feeling of ir r e v

erence — whether there be a C reato r o r
not I f proximate causes if natural agen
.
!
cies cannot be found to account for the

,
28 SCIENTIFIC A GN O S TICI SM
origination of species the problem for the

,
man o f science is unsolved and it may be ,
insoluble ; but in any event the Case i s

;
not helped from the scientific point o f

view by the theory o f supernatural crea
tion I f it be true that all kinds o f life
.
came into existence instantaneously by ,
the mere fiat o f the Divine Will then this ,
fact instead of affording an altern ative

,
explanation to the biologist c arries the ,
proble m which he had raised o u t of t h e

field o f science altogether S cience stops
.
where the sequence of natural e vents in

time is broken by a supernatural occur
rence S cience I s simply the record of the
.
behavio r o f things under the established

order ; neither her method nor her appa
ratus enables her to go beyond these limits
and when O mnipotence comes upon t h e
scene Sh e is smitten with impotence O nly
,
.
there are such good reasons for faith in the

continuity of natural causation that no o n e
can be expected to believe without the ,
strongest evidence in a breach due to the

,
miracle o f supernatural agency .
How then stands the case with the origi

, ,
nation o f species ? M en of science may be

p rejudiced in favor of an explanation by
SCI E N TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 29
natural causation fo r it is their business

,
“
to se ek secondary causes ; but if as a

“
matter o f fact species were miraculously

,
and instantaneously created by God there ,
would be nothing for biology to do bu t to

accept the fact and confin e its inquiries t o
the behavior o f the organisms which had
thus come supernaturally upon the field .
But we do not know that living forms

were thus originated I t was no doubt
.
, ,
the universal belief before Dar wi n But .
that belief had no other basis than the bib

l ic al account o f creation and we have now
learned that whateve r else the Bible may
,
do fo r us it was never intended to teach

,
us science I ndeed the very conception o f

.
science derived as it is from the Greeks

, ,
w as foreign to the He brew mind If .
y o u r e ad the O ld Testament with the

slightest degree o f attention yo u will see ,
that none o f the writers has any notion o f

that order o f nature and system O f se c _
o n dar cau ses which it is the function

y
o f scie n ce to interpret O n the contrary
.
,
they conceive o f G o d as the direct and

immediate cause o f all natural phenomena .
“ “
T h e God o f glory thundereth ; the
voice o f the L ord breaketh the cedars ;
the voice of the L ord shaketh the wilder

ness the voice of the L ord maketh the
b in ds to Calve “
the L ord sitteth upon
the flood ; yea the L ord sitteth King for
,
”
ever . These quotations are from a psal
in ist
, it is true ; but neither in poet o r
prophet chro n i cler o r historia n will you
, ,
discover any hint o f nature as an inter

mediary system of relatively independent
agencies and the more fervid the inspira
,
—
tion o f the writer the more intensely does
,
he picture all sublunary changes as do ings

of the L ord of Hosts Ultimately c o n sid
.
ered this interpretation seems to me to be

,
true eternally true But it is a verity

“
, .
with which scienc e has no concern O n .
the other hand as I have said already the

, ,
Hebrew race had no genius for that exact

and systematic knowledge o f natural phe
n o m e n a which is the d e si deratum of the
scientific i n quirer When therefore this
.
, ,
p rofou n d, but unscientific people began to

,
brood over the mysterious problem o f t h e

origin o f things they grasped with a clear
, ,
ness that has never been excelled the ,
great and precious truth that God is the

creative source of the world ; but wh en
they proceede d to describe the procession
SCIEN TIFIC A CN oS TI CI SM 31
of —
natural phenomena the breaking of
light o n chaos the formation o f the globe

, ,
and the app e arance o f living creatures ,
each after his kind ”

— they were so far
from anticipating the discoveries of modern
science that their only aim was to adorn
the truth o f rea son with the poetry of a
na ive but sublime phantasy for which they
,
sketched a succession o f pictures which

still have potency t o subdu e the im agina
tion and attune the emotions like th e
stately ov e rture t o an oratorio .
I t is perfectly O bvious t o day — o r it

-
—
should be that if you would kno w the
history o f organisms yo u mus t consult the
testimony o f the fossiliferous rocks I t .
was very different when Huxley began his

investigations . E verybody then supposed
it was enough t o consult the Book of Gen
’
esis I t became Huxley s duty as a man
.
,
o f sc i ence ,to show that the two records

did not agree And h e accomplished the
.
task which it must be owned he found far

,
from uncongenial with an array o f evi

,
dence and a cogency o f demonstration

which convinced everybody except his
disco m fi t e d antagonists and the invin cible
torturers o f the Hebrew text Huxley .
32 SCIENTIFIC A CN OS TI CI SM
professed to have a perfectly open mind

towards the two records t o have no pr e ju ,
dice o n e way O r the other and he declared

th at the view which he accepted was c o m
mended solely by the c onclu siveness o f the
’
e v idence in its favor P erhaps he deceived

.
himself ; perhaps he was influenced to ,
some extent at least by his way o f look

, ,
—
ing at things in general what M r B al .
“
four has since called the psychological
”
climate . But Huxley was certainly not
conscious o f any s u ch di stracting caus e o f
belief I n relation to the conflict between
.
the creational and the evolutional doctrine

o f the origin o f species he conceived his ,
mind as a freely acting balance which , ,
however moved was moved solely by t h e

,
weight o f the evidence adduced And .
this hospitality and loyalty of the mi nd

”
t o evidence with the putt i ng away of au

,
t h o r it y tradition and every other cir

, ,
c u m st an c e,is what Huxley means by the

Agnosticism o f the man of science .
I have hitherto spoken of the case o f

E volution ve r su s C reation solely from the
’
point of view o f biology Huxley s con
tention is that as concerns the time order
, , ,
and manner in which living kinds came

S CIEN TIFIC A GNO S TICISM ’
33
into existence the stratifie d rocks tell one

,
s t ory and the B ook o f Genesis another .
But Huxle y ! putting aside the colossal

blunder O f Bathybius which he frankly,
acknowledged ) has nothing to say o f the

first beginning of those primordial species
from whose varieties other spec i es may
subsequently have been formed And o f .
,
course as a biolo gist he was under no

, ,
temptation to account for the origin of the

inorganic world o r o f the realm of c on
scious minds I t is conceivable indeed
.
, ,
that the uni verse is eternal ; but if so , ,
reflection shows that neither now nor at

any other moment could it exist w ithout
the sustaining energy o f the Divine Voli “
“
tion ; and Goethe finely calls it the liv
ing garment o f God But however it
.
,
be with the universe it is a certainty o f

,
science that at o n e time there was neither

life nor consciousness o n this globe T o
the man o f science their emergence must
be a miracle for it is a violatio n of the
,
law o f natural causation The religious .
mind calls it a creation E volutionary .
science would have accomplished its goal

only if it could sho w that life had de vel
oped from inorganic matter and mind ,
D
from unconscious life F rom the p rimi.
tive nebula o f the univ erse to man who

knows it the chain o f evolution would
,
then be complete There would b e no

.
break in what Huxley descri bed as N at “
ure s great pr o gr e ssio n fr o m the formless

’
, _
—
to the formed from the inorganic to the
organic — from blind force to conscious
”
intellect and will But science has not
.
realized this ideal ; and it is probably

unrealizable This is doubtl ess a great
.
com fort to t he general public Were the .
realization ever achieved many pious ,
minds who can see God only when He

,
breaks in on t h e order of natural causa

tion would have to walk by faith ; and I
,
fear in the absence of sight the ligh t

, ,
would seem dim indeed Yet a primitive .
chaos o f star dust which held in its womb

-
,
not only the cosmos t h at c fi lls space not ,
only the living creatures that teem upon

it bu t also the intellect that inte rprets it
, ,
the will that confronts it and the con ,
science that t r an sfi g u r e s it must as cer ,
t ain l y have God at the centre as a universe

mechanically arranged and periodically a d
justed must have Him at the circumference .
There is no real antagonism between Cr e

ation and E volution The notion o f C re

.
at ion implies the absolut e beginning o f

existence ; t h e notion o f E volution im
plies gradual and progressive change in
that which already exists C reation is
.
n o t only in itself t o t o c oe lo different from
E volution ; it is as m u ch t h e prerequisite
'
o f E volution as your bodily syste m is of
digestion E volution is merely the mode

.
in which according to modern sc i ence

, ,
G o d manifests Himself alike in the world

o f nature and in the world o f Sp i r i t His .
procedure is not by spasms and cataclysms ;

but here a little there a little and ever
, ,
gradually onward .
I wonder what posterity will make o f

the confusion which the law o f evolution
caused in the minds o f the gener ation
which in the nineteenth century firs t
discovered conclusive evidence o f its
operation ? They will surely learn with
amazeme n t and incredulity that the dis
c ov er
y was in high quarters supposed to
be fatal to a belief in God and that what , ,
in O ld t im e s t h e fool had said in his heart ,
was in that age proclaimed upon the house

tops as the final inference o f science an d
phil osophy As though m an s faith t ha t
.
’
36 SCI E NTIFIC A GNO S TICISM
G o d is coul d be shaken by a new glim pse

o f ho w G o d a ct s Sur ely it remain s a
necessary postul ate Of intelli gence — a
d atum as reasonabl e an d trus t worthy as

belief in the exi stence of an yt hi n g what
soever that God is the creative s ou r ce
and sustain i ng ground of the universe ,
and th at whether He poure d forth His

,
energy at a defin i te then and there o r as , ,
I belie v e continues to difi u se it through

every p oint O f in fi ni te space and to main
tain it at every moment O f u n en di ng time .
I must do Huxley the justice of explain

in g that hi s clear i ntellect was never
obscu r ed by the delusion that atheism
was an inference from the theory o f
evolution What he attacked was that
.
venerable tradi tion o f the process of

creation whi ch had been so long a c
,
c e pt e d as a part o f reli gi on itself ; and

he attacke d it for the good and suffi cient
rea son that it was at variance wi th the
facts revealed in the fossiliferous strata
’
of the earth s crust .
I have to some extent already touched .
upon Huxley s advoc a cy of the sim ian

’
or pithecoid origin of m an I have des

ig n at e d thi s issue the case of P ithecus
SCIE N TIFIC A GNO S TI CI SM 37
ve r su s Adam Huxle y considered the

.
iss u e o n e o f capital importance His o w n .
attitude brought upon him criticism and

ridicule and n o t only those but also ani
, ,
m a dv e r sio n and reproof ; and for a time ,
as he long afterwards good naturedly -
said he was little b etter than o n e o f

,
the wicked But Huxley needed oppo

. ..
sit io n ; he liked fighting ; and this er u

sade was in the cause o f truth I nde e d .
it is diffi cult to kno w how a fair minded -
and honest biologist who saw so far could

have forborne to say as much as Huxley
set down in his famous pamphlet o n
“
M an s P lace in N ature
’
S cience must
needs be truthful outright and do w n, ,
right And Huxley was not the man to

.
make his biographer blush as Bacon had ,
made M acaulay blush for the disin g e n

u o u sn e ss o f the most devoted worshipper
o f speculative truth for the servility of

,
.
the boldest champion o f intellectual free

”
dom . Here i n Huxley is an admirable
example to every student and thinker .
The thing that is true may not be wel

—
come for interests are entrenched be
hind what is current ; but if you know
it to be true — I am not speaking of
38 SCIENTIFIC A GNO S TI OI SM
guessing but o f knowledge and I say ,
if you are sure you have ascertained the

truth i n God s name speak it o u t and
,
’
keep not silent ! This is what Huxley

did in regard to the q u e st io n o f man s a
’
relation to the animal s next below him .
E ven before the appearance of The

O rigin of S pec i es he had t hought much
of the structural affinities o f m e n and
apes ; and the views at which he had
arrived were in full harmony with those
which D arwin now proclaimed M an s .
’
”
P lace in N at u r e was finishe d in 1 8 6 2 .
Taking account both o f f oetal develop

ment and adult structure this work de
“
m o n st r at e d the most striking similarities

between man and the man lik e apes I n -
.
the processes of origination in the early ,
stages o f formation in t h e mode of nu

,
’
t r it io n before and after birth man s his ,
tory is identical with that o f the apes ;

and in his developed structure the r e
semblances with theirs are as strik ing
as they are fundam ental After compar.
ing their several organs with great care

and exactitude Huxley reached the con
,
c lu si o n that the structural differences

which separate man from the gorilla and
S CIE N TIFIC A G NOS TICISM 39
the chi m panzee are n o t so great as those

'
which se par at e t h e gorilla from the lower

apes And th is leads d i rectly to the con
.
elusion which so horrified Huxley s gen ’
e r at io n I f animals of similar structure

.
and function are ever d escended from

co mmon ancestors then there is n o r a ,
t io n al ground for doubting either that ,
the human species might have origi

n at e d by differentiation from the simi an
a ,
o r that both are modified r am l fi c at i o n s
o f a common ancestral stock N ow D ar .
win s investigations prove that species do

’
,
sometimes at any rat e originate through ,
modifications in the c c descendants o f -
common ancestors Accordingly Huxley .

,
re g arded the simian origin o f man as

highly probable And it afforded in
.
=
tense satisfaction to his craving for sc i e n

t ifi c explanation to be able to trace the
condition o f the entire organic world ,
as L yell had traced that of the inorganic ,
to the e fficiency o f causes still operating

about us .
There is as I have already intimated

, ,
—
feeling I think I may say a conviction
—among s c ientists o f the present day
t hat the D arwini an theory o f descent
“
40 SCIENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM
with modifications has been pushed too

far and that corollaries have been drawn
,
from it which a longer and more accurate

acquaintance with t h e facts shows to be
altogether unwarranted Some t hing like
a reaction from earlier Darwinism seems
now in full force I n t ime the limits o f
.
the new truth will be defined M eanwhile .
we are in doubt and uncertainty In .
striking contrast is Dar w in s o w n assur ’
anc e of m an s descent from the lower

’
animals I n the postscript to a letter to

.
L yell written as early as January 1 8 5 0

, , ,
he tells his friend that he has a pleasant

genealogy for m ”
ankind ; and describes
o u r remotest ancestor as an animal which
breathed water had a swi m bladder a
,
-
,
great swimm i ng tail an imperfect skull, ,
and was undoubtedly an h ermaphro di te I

B e it so I Yet
A m an m an fo r t h at
’ ’
s a a .
If at the beginning he starts with the

brute and if at the end his body may
,
return to the basest uses still twere to ,

’
consider too curiously to c onsider so ,
unless we also observed that this quin

t e sse n c e o f dust is not only the parago n
S CIEN TIFIC A GN OS TI OI SM 41
of animals but the on e self conscious

,
-
denizen o f o u r world noble in reason ,

~
infinit e i n fa c ulty in action like an angel

, ,
in apprehension like a God Assume I .

“
say t hat D arwin s pleasant geneal ogy

,
“ ’
”
for mankind should pass muster with
the herald s college o f c ontemporary biol
’
o y
g What
. matters it t h at yo u have
come from brutishness if yo u are come to ,
humanity ? What matters it that y our

‘
ancestor was an ape if you are a man , I

ask not what you are derived from but ,
what yo u have arrived at ? The vital

matter is not wheth er a man started at
t his point o r at that but in the expressive
, ,
”
slang o f o u r day w hether he got there
, .
I f you are conscious o f the dignity and

responsibility o f human living you will ,
survey with indifference speculations con

‘
cerning the origin o f your race knowing ,
that you are not o n e whit the better o r

the worse whether it started with a fallen
archangel or an exalted ape Of course .
L ady C lara Vere de Vere might see peril

“ ”
to her hundred coats o f arms But - -
.
that in a democratic community like ours ,
where wor t h and not birth is the test o f

manhood th ere should be an avers i on t o
,
42 SCIEN TIFIC A GNOS TICISM
’
Dar w in s doctrine o f the descent o f man
as degrading to humanity is a curious ,
illustration o f the tenacity with which -
sentiments survive the institutions and

beliefs which made them appropriate and ,
live o n even when they have become irra

t i c h al and absurd I f men are to be
.
judged not by what they are but by

, ,
what they came from not only bi o logy , ,
n o t only science but common experience

,
as we ll will force us to a complete revision

of o u r estimate o f mankind I f any o n e .
o f us could trace his pedigree through a
hundred generations he wou l d find at the

,
other end a nak ed savage but little r e

moved from the brutes N ay a short .
,
time ago and you yourself were merely a

germ which no ordinary pow e r o f dis
crimination could distin guish from an
incipient puppy B u t these facts are
.
neither degrading nor brutalizing t o your

humanity They put o n you no obliga
.
tion to scalp your neighbors or t o grovel ,
on all fours .
—
You are n o t w ha t you
ha ve c om e fr o m bu t w ha t you h a ve be c om e
,
.
And the knowledge o f your l owly begin

n in g s should give you faith and hope
in your capacity for still higher things .
SCIENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM 43
There may be atavism there may be r e

'
ve r sio n t o primitive types ; but the general

“
tendency o f evolution being to fuller and

better life it is assuredly the destiny o f
,
man to
M o ve u pw a r d, w o r k i n
g ou t t he be ast ,
A n d le t t h e a pe an d t ige r die
No knew this better than Huxley

on e .
Asserting o n the o n e hand that no abso

, ,
lute line o f demarcation could be drawn

between the structure o f man and the
struct u re o f the animals next below him ,
a n d holding that even the highest faculties
o f the human mind begin to germinate in
lo w er forms o f life the evolutionary biol ,
o g ist was also profoundly conscious o f the
vastness o f the gulf between civilized man

and th e brutes and he declared in felici , ,
tous and striking terms that whether ,
fr o m them o r not man is assuredly n o t of ,
them This Agnosticism doe s n o t touch

.
the dignity o r the spiritual vocation of

man True Huxley did not , as he aptly
.
,
u t it base man s dignity upon his g r eat

’
p ,
toe o r insinuate that we are lost if an ape

,
h as a hippo campus minor What he .
did was to raise a simple question of fact ,

44 SCIENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM ’
namely whether the human species did

,
not strongly resemble the simian and to ,
suggest an expl anation namely whether

, ,
they might not have had a com mon origin .
This is the meaning of Huxley s A g n o st i ’
c ism in relation to the question of the

‘
origin o f man At this distance o f time

.
nothing could seem more harmless or less

disquieting .
I have now examined the case o f E v o

l u t io n ver su s C reation and the case o f
P ithecus ver su s Adam . There remains ,
to complete o u r survey o f the A g n o st i

c ism developed by Huxley the case o f
,
Sc i e n ce ve r su s Revelation
f
This issue I
.
have to some extent already anticipated .
The conflict between the evol u tional and

the creational theories of the origin o f liv
ing beings and particularly o f man 1 s a
, ,
—
part and a part o f great strategic im
—
portance o f the general warfare between
Scl e n c e and R evelation .To this com
prehensive issue itself I now briefly in
vite your attention .
As ordinarily understood R evelation ,
gives us inerrant truth on infallible author

ity S cience yields provisional theories
.
with no better warrant than u n c o n t r a

l
S CIEN TIFIC A GNOS TICISM '
45 .
dicted experience At first sight R evela

.
“
tion might seem to be the more fruitful

and trustw orthy source o f knowledge ;
and the ages o f faith so regarde d it But .
ours is an epoch o f criticism We de .
mand the grounds of belief ; w e suffer no

claims to pass o n the plea o f their sanc
tity o r o f their antiquity I n this work .
o f criticism the o n e sure standard is ex

,
p e r ie n ce I. u se the word “
experience
in the broadest possible sense ; and I say

'
that the age o f science which has super

vened upon the age o f faith holds the
experience o f mankin d to be the best and
safest test of truth We are not h o w .
,
ever ju st ifi e d in rej ecting everything that

,
transcends the range o f ordinary human

experience O n the contrary so far as
.
,
we k now to morrow may produce events

,
-
which yesterday would hav e been mira

cles I t is not criticism it is not science
.
, ,
but it is dogmatism o f the most arrant

type to assert that m 1r acl e s are impossible
,
.
What then should be the intellectual atti

tude of the candid inquirer in regard t o
assertions o f miraculou s occurrences which
claim to be the sure word o f R evelation
in errant truth on infallible authority ? I
SCIE NTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
answer unhesitatingly that before giving ,
his ass e nt to those statements such an

inquirer m
,
ust satisfy himself first that , ,
there is evidence sufficient t o show that

the events in question actually happened ,
and secondly that th eir occurrence is

, ,
insusceptible of explanation o n natural

grounds This wo u l d involve a close
.
scrutiny o f all the facts and cir cum

z
stances in connection with every reported

miracle for the purpose o f ascertai n ing
,
the evidential value of the whole N or .
would this be the end of the i nquiry .
Besides this specific examination in each

case it woul d be necessary to make a
,
general canvass o f the claims o f R evela

tion as resting on infallible a u thority an d
furnishing inerrant truth Appeals to .
antiquity t o au t h o r it y t o t r a dit io n wo u l d
, , _
have no more weight in t h e settlement of

the question than a fair minded ju dge -
might consider the equitable due of an

cient times illustrious names and sayings
, ,
generally received .
I say then that the mirac u l ous occur

, ,
r e n c e s recorded in the Bible must be sub
e c t e d to those tests before any critical in

j
ir e r can be asked to accept o r rej ect them
q u .
SCIE NTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 47
O f course the natural eve nts describe d by

~
th e sacred writers will be judged by the

ordinary cano n s of historic credibility .
I n the light o f these criteria we may now ,
ask what attitude our Agnostic scientist

assumed in relation to the claims o f R eve
lation I can I think describe his posi
.
, ,
tion in a very few words I n t h e first .
place Huxley finds that while in some

, ,
cases the sacred books o f R evelation de

clare that certain events happened in a
certain fashion the secular books o f S ci
,
ence prove that they did not And in '

.
,
the second pl a c e H u xle y finds that while

, ,
in other cases the wonderful statements

,
o f the Bible are not contradicted by S ci
ence they are not supported by inherent

,
evidence sufficient to make them probable

o r credible The total result is both as
.
,
regards historical events and supranatural

occurrences that the same liability to
,
error and the same intr ins i c im pr o babil

ity which we so readily recognize in the
narrat ives o f the sacred books o f other
peoples become the portion o f o u r own
Bible which had hitherto in almost u n i
, ,
versal estimation been se t apart by t h e ,
notes o f canonicity inerrancy and author , ,

ity Huxley bases his conclusion o n an

.
examinatio n o f typical specime ns o f the

O ld Testament and the N ew ; and in mak
ing his selections he showed a marked and
constant predilection for what he called
“ “
the N oachian D eluge and the Bedevil
”
ment o f the Gadarene S wine F or i n .
sistence o n fact for force o f reasoni n g for

, ,
lucidity o f style fo r the unconventional

,
way in which he treats theol ogical sub

je c t s for, disregard o f everything but
what he believed the evidence in the
case and for the radical character of his
,
results Huxley in t h e se w r it in g s was u n

, , ,
parall eled in h iS generation and in recent

times finds a parallel in S trauss alone I .
may add too that the very general ap

”
, ,
proval which the intelligent public a o

’
corded to Huxley s exc ursions into the -
realm o f theology shows that the E ng

lish speaking
-
world had already entered
into a new era o f thought and culture
a critical era in which the barr i ers between
theology and reason have been broken
down and the most venerable dogmas
,
left to stand o r fall with the evidence

adduced to support them .
O f course the Bible contains myth and

,
SCIENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM 49
legend allegory and fable poetry and

, ,
prose ; and it ought n ot to be surprising

that c ritical sci ence historical and physi
-
cal — s h ould discover errors in the sensu

o u s setting o f the supersensuous spiritual
truth and life it was intended to reveal

'
“
Grant that none o f t h e m ir a cle s reported

in the O ld Testament occurred gr ant that ,
many of the historical ev ents w ere very

different from what the r ecords would
’
naturally lead us to suppose still I srael s
vision o f a reign o f righteousness o n earth
and in heaven is to this day v e rified in the
soul of every good man who studies their
laws and maxims or who communes with
their psalmists and their prophets O r .
look at the N ew Testament What if the .
”
“
Bedevilment o f the Gadarene S wine ,
which proved such a stumbling block to -
Huxley never took place what if all

,
the miraculous occurrences i n the natural

”
world re corded in the Gospels were the

fantastic tribute o f a pious gene ration ,
unskilled in the art of writing history and

ignorant o f the constancy o f nature s laws ’
,
t o a transcendent personality who com

m an de d their loyalty touched all the
,
springs o f their affection and thrill ed their

,
E
souls with a consuming sense of the in alie n

able and indefeasible nearness of man to
God ? Wo u l d not that miracle of mi r acles
still r emain Jesus o f N azareth the w o n
, ,
der worker of human history ? And would

-
not the purpose o f His coming — “

I am
come that ye might have life and that
ye might have it more abundantly — be
fu l fil led in the revelation He made not ,
‘
only through His teach ings but in His

human life both of the actual fatherliness
,
o f God and the potential divineness o f
man ? These ar e spiritual truths whi ch

neither age can stale nor custom wither ,
which no science can disprove and no

“
criticism discredit they are truths which

transcend both the order of nature and t h e
secular history o f humanity ; yet truths
which once revealed and incar nated by
,
the divine S on o f M an appr o v e them

I
selves eternal verities t o o u r religio u s

—
intuition and feeling that divining in
t e ll ig e n c e
Wh e k in g do m
os is w h e r e t im e an d spac e ar e n o t .
do not think that C hristian faith

I
should be shaken o r disturbed by new
interpretations o f the Bible That the .
SCIENTIFIC A GN OS TI OI SM 51
essence o f it is imperishable truth —truth

o f the spiritual order the heart o f man
will pe r enni ally attest I ntr i ns i c falsity
.
— what P lato called the lie in the soul

not even the veriest sceptic has asserted
o f the sacred writings B u t we hav e this
.
treasure of spiritual tru th in earthen

”
ve ssels
. The scenes in space and e vents
in time which represe n t it to o n e age o f
culture may misrepresent it to another .
I n the lapse o f ages the portrayal m ay

become a caricature Whenever such a
.
crisis arrives men become so absorbed in

,
destroying the trappin gs o f truth that they

lose sight o f the maj estic fig u re these were
intended to set o ff a n d de c o r at e Your
‘
destructive critic is forever missing the

eternal essence o f truth in his pursuit o f
the changea ble and perishable forms o f its
embo diment C osmogonical legends di
.
,
dac t ic chronicles wonderful stories o f non

,
natural occurrences in nature served to ,
convey spiritual truth to earlier and more

‘
ignorant generations o f mankind But .
in themselves these things are devoid o f

spiritual e fficacy They are merely the
.
bells t o call primitive peoples to church .
S weet as the music they once made mod ,

52 SCIENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM
ern ears find them j angling and o u t o f

tune ; and their dissonant notes scare
away pio us souls who would fai n enter
the temple o f worship I n the divinely
.
ordered education of the race man has ,
prog ressed so far that h e is now capable

o f apprehe n ding in its purity that spirit
ual truth which was set forth to earlier

generations in the forms o f theoph anies ,
miracles and extraordinary s cenes and

,
occurrences What the devout scholar

.
and the devo u t scientist o f modern times

yearns for is not the theology o f C hrist
,
endom but the religion o f C hrist That

,
.
religion I call the absolute religion I t .
is not true because it is in the Bible it is

in the Bible because it is ete r nally tr u e .
I ts forms may change ; its embodiments

may perish ; its records may pass away ;
“
for all these belong to the world o f se n se

and may fall a prey to the c ontingencies o f
tim e ; but the religion which Jesus lived
and taught will endure as long as t h e ?
human soul itself which it is the glory of

,
that religion to have bound indissolubly to

its Divine O riginal The C hristian relig
.
ion as a system of dogmatic theology is

, ,
already obsoles cent ! even in the churches ,

S CI ENTIFIC A GNOS TICISM 53
or in many o f them it is a n alien and u n

_ ,
heeded survival ) ; but the religion of C hrist

is still fresh with the dews o f immortal
youth and pregnant with abounding life
to quicken the souls o f all the children o f
men Throughout C hris tendom there has
.
been a recoil of men s minds from creed to

’
personality The evolution o f o u r relig

.
i o n brings us at the dawn o f the twentieth

century back to C hrist Himself .
I t is at this point that Huxley s treat

’
ment o f the C hristian religion seems to

me especially unsatisfactory E volutionist .
as he was he overlooked the fact that both

,
C hristianity and the interpretation o f its

records are subj ect to the law o f evolution .
N ow in theology as in other provinces o f

,
inquiry the idea o f development has be

,
come the master light o f all o u r seeing .
I n a world where everything changes and

grows where the mind o f man enlarges
, ,
we naturally look for new experiences o f

religion new conceptions o f the Bible
, ,
and new expositions o f doctrine These .
changes are the phases o f an evolving life ,
and rightly considered they witness to

, ,
-
the i n h erent vitality o f C hristianity I f .
creeds are shifting it is only that they

,
54 SCIENTIFIC A GN OS TI OI SM
may the better adjust themselves to that

more correct interpretation o f God s reve ’
lation to and in man which in the pr ogress

o f the ages the hum a n mind is continu
o u sl y attaining to S uch a m odificatio n

.
o f creed s means the purification simpli

’
fi c at io n and r ej uvenation o f C hristian

,
theology But Huxley read such trans

.
formations o f dogma as the annihilation

o f theology As though a ma n must r e
.
u diat e C hri stianity because unabl to

p e
accept the creed of his gr an dm o t h e r l
Huxley was led into this absur dity by

the assumption ! utterly foreign though
it is t o the sp i r it o f modern scholarship )
that if the Bible be not history a literal,
record and chronicle o f events which act

u all
y happened it is
, not possible for us
to have a C hristian the o logy or if I u n ,
de r st an d him aright even a C hristian

,
re ligion A C hristianity indepen dent o f

.
time and place eternally true and veri

, ,
fi e d by every soul that finds it and which

it fi n ds
,
— a spiritual religion as in diffe r
ent to history as it is to science transcend ,
ing both and holding the high places o f

,
the human spirit ; this is something Hux

ley ne ver dreamt o f C hristianity m u st be
.
SCI EN TIFIC A GNOS TICISM 55
“
historical in all it s d e t ails o r it is
”
ill usion ! N ay C hristian theology
, he ,
tells us in t h e controversial essay o n The

L ights o f the C hurch and the L ight o f S ci
”
ence ,
must st and o r fall with the h ist o r
ical trustworthiness o f the Jewish S cript
ures I t is all up with C hristianity if ,
those definite and detailed O ld Testament

narratives of apparently real events ar e not
actually historical — if the covenant w ith
,
Abraham w as n o t made if circumcision ,
was not ordained by Jehovah if the deca ,

’
logue was not written by God s hand o n
the stone tables if Ab r aham is more o r less
,
a mythical hero the story o f the deluge a

,
fiction that of the fall a legend an d that

, ,
o f creation the dream o f a seer ! O ne

w ould ordinarily say that if these events ,
are n o t historical there is room in that

,
great collection o f books we call the Bible

for other and higher forms o f literary ex
p ression than the sober chronicle o f the
historian ; and that the truths o f poetry ,
parable and legend may be more important

,
and fruitful fo r constructive theology than

the truths o f history N ot so Huxl ey . .
He will have nothing but history And .
turning in the essay on Agnosticism and

,
“
C hristianity , to the N ew
Testament he -
lays bare it s u n h ist o r ic al features by dis

se c t in g t h e sto r y o f the Gadare n e sw ine ,
demonstrating its incredibility and couse ,
quently bringing under suspicion all other

stories of demoniac possession But if the .
“
demonological/ part o f C hristianity be
rej ected Huxley holds that the testimony
,
of Jesus who accepted that demonology

, ,
—
to the spiritual world His declaration of
the personality fatherhood and lo v m g
, ,
—
?
providence of God will have been pro

fo u n dly impaired if it is n o t indeed ren
,
dered absolutely valueless As Huxley put .
it in h is rej oind er to Gladstone entitled ,
“
The Keepers of the Herd o f S wine ,
the authority o f the teachi n gs o f the

S ynoptic Gospels touching the nature o f
,
the spiritual world turns upon the accept

,
?
ance o r the rej ection o f the Gadarene

, ,
”
and other like stories .
I t is humiliating to think that the

wretched pigs of Gadara may make o r
unmake o u r religious faith F or my o w n .
part I cannot fo r a moment assent to

,
such a vie w . And I have already a o

u ain t e d you with some of the grounds
q
which compel me to rej ect it I will here .
SCIE N TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
only illustrate my position by a referenc e

t othat book which men and women o f E ng
lish spe ech ar e in the habit o f mentioning
/
next after the Bible

‘
— I mean o f course , ,
the dramas o f S hakespeare L et me ask

.
o u to consider fo r a moment two o f those

y
plays Hamlet and M acbeth In
'
, .
these dramas the actors are not all human

beings ; witches and ghosts come upon
the scene and to S hakespeare an d his
contemporaries these s u pernatu ra l entities
were ! I presume ) as real as the mundane
’
characters We have lost man s primitive
.
faith in the existence of ghosts and witches .
But Hamlet and M acbeth are as

true and significant t o u s as they were to
S hakespeare s contemporaries As a rev
’
.
elat ion o f the depths o f human nature

o f a soaring intellect and a paralyzed will ,
o f the lust o f power a n d an imagination
that dallies with it while painting also

the pangs o f remorse — these plays ha ve
a worth and also a vitality unaffect ed by
the place o r time of their production or ,
even by the perishable elements entering

into their composition And yo u will not
.
fail to note either that o u r estimatio n o f

the value of these plays our ap preciation
,
of their meaning and our participation in

,
the author s insight are absolutely inde

’
pendent of any theories that may be

for m ed concerning the life and character
o f S hakespeare I ndeed while the dramas
.
,
are the immortal heritage of our race we ,
know next to nothing of the dramatist .
I n the same way I apprehend that if ,
the Bible were annihilated the religi on of ,
C hrist would be approved and verified by

the religious consciousness of C hristen
dom I t w as revealed that it might be
.
received of men and the historical revela

,
tion h as n o w ! may I not say ? ) become the

~
ideal possession o f the human spirit .
I think Huxley himself in his later

years got a glimpse of the truth that the
conflict between Science and R evelation
w a s to be settled by the develo p ment o f
both He came to rec ogn ize a certain
.
class o f inquirers as scientific t h e ol o

” “
gi ans whom he opposed to
, counsels
for creeds the advocates of C lerical
”
ism and E cclesiast i c i sm ”
Th ose theo
.
l o g ia n s he called scientific because they ,
based their assertions not on a uthority

, ,
but o n evidence Here the theologian

.
an d the scientist occupied common ground .

S CIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM 59
And H u xley could and did appreciate it .
B ut I do not think H u xley ever recog

n iz e d how m u ch R evelation contained ,
and must contain other than propositions

,
addresse d to the intellect I ts peculiar ’

.
field is t h e emotions and m o r e; par t icu

,
l ar ly the mor al and spi ritual nature o f

“
man I n this field the watchword is not

.
evidence but in sp i ration ; t h e aim is not

,
truth but higher life Huxley with the

, .
,
fine frenzy for natural knowledge that

possessed him throughout all his work
and controversy never realized h o w much
,
o f what is best in life lies outside that
restricted territory He sought very

.
,
properly to expel from belie f improbable

,
stories o f supernatural occurrences amid

the regular fl o w o f natural events ; but
he never rose to the full height o f the
argument from which he m ight have sur
v e ye d natural causation as t h e expression
o f a S upernatural M ind in nature and

—
,
r
man a being at once of se n sibilit y an d

o f —
rational and moral self activity as a -
signal and ever present example o f the

-
interfusion o f the natural with the sup e r

natural in that part o f universal existence
nearest and best known to us .
SCIE N TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
I have discussed this problem at too

great length and I must now hasten o n
, .
There re main two forms of Agnosticism

yet to be mentioned in any adequate a o
count o f Huxley O ne of them we may.
call M etaphysical and the other L ogical

Agnosticism The former I m u st dismiss
.
with a word Huxl ey often alludes to it

.
,
but never attempts to establish or develop

it I t is the dogma
.
—the colossal dogma
that the human mind is incapable of
apprehendin g God A man who can ih .
t e llig e n t ly frame that proposition should

be called not agnostic but omn i scient , .
F or the doctri n e means that God is of

such a nature and the human mind of
,
such a make that the two can never come

,
together Huxley picked up the tenet

.
from an essay of S ir William Hamilton ,
which he read as a boy his boyi sh .
credulity remained with him to the end

1
o f his days .I have elsewhere examined
the doctrine and must here content m y
,
self with categorically rej ecting it as not

proven . That the human mind is inca
p a bl e of knowing anything of God is a ,
dogma that rests on no evidence whatever .
1 Se e t h e n ext ch apt er .
SCI E NTIFIC A GN OS TICISM 61
Th e man w h o propounds it whatever he ,
m aycall himself is the greatest dogmatist

,
the world h as ever seen The ph il o so.
p h e r s w ho first set it forth deduced it

from the pr emises the false p r emises
-
which they inherited fro m o n e sided sys -
tems o f thought I n Hume it flows from

!
.
,
an absurd sensationalism in Kant from , ,
an equally absurd rationalism —both o f ,
them now happily obsolete And Hume .
an d Kant are the a u thorities whom Hux
ley invokes to support his theological

nescience I
The only remaining phase o f A g n o st i
c ism i s what I have called L ogical Agnos
t ic ism This is n o t a creed o f any kind

.
,
either positive o r negative ; it asserts no

ten et and denies none ; it connotes an
,
attitude o f mind in dealing with evide n ce ,
which is as much ethical as intellectual ”

.
I t signifies candor open mindedness and a

,
-
,
resolute determination to believe what the

facts warrant neither more nor less The
, .
doctrine that there are propositions which

men ought to believe without logically
satisfactory evidence or ! in Dr N ew ,
.
’
man s words ) that religious error is in
.
“
,
”
itself o f an immoral nature is abhorrent
, ,
,
62 S CIE N TIFIC A GNOS TICISM
and shocking to the Agnostic A g n o st i .
c ism in this sense is synonymous with sc i

, ,
e n t ifi c method applied to every realm of
inquiry You will find Agnostics in lit

.
e r at u r e history theology philos ophy and

, , , ,
science They bring existing beliefs to

.
the test o f fact with the result o f sus ,
pen ding altering o r confirming our judg

, ,
ment o f their validity The Agnostic is .
a judge weighing evidence a c r itic bal an c ,
in g c o n flict in g probab ilities

/
.
This phase o f Agnosticism is that in

which Huxley delighted as a champion o f
intellectual liberty With an a i r of superi .
o r it y perhaps pardonable under the cir

“
c u m st an ce s he would fling it in the teeth

,
o f his creed bound opponent as though

-
,
thanking God ! if only there were a God)

that he was not as other men o r even as
“ ”
this poor ecclesiastic But the fact is .
that Huxley missed the real p o int o f dif

fere nce between himself and the eccle
”
si a st i c B oth of them appeal alike to
.
evidence ; both reason on the facts o f

the case in dispute What distinguishes .
them is that the sort of evidence which

convinces one leaves the mind of the other ,
unmoved Their methods are the same ;

.
SCIE N TIFIC A GNOS TICISM 3
they are both scientific critical o r ! if yo u , ,
will ) agnostic and if they reach entirely

different re su lts it is because the u n e x
,
pressed premises o f their reasonings are

different and perhaps contradictory The .
fundamental assumptio n s that shape and

color all thinking the psych ological cli
”
mate l n which the intellect lives and

works t h e primal elements o f character
,
which remain below the threshold o f c o n

sc i o u sn e ss , these influence all o u r bel iefs
and reasonings and in a Huxley and a
,
“
Gladstone they present as wide diversities

as any o f the contrary theories these
distinguished a dvocates ever espoused .
Think for example o f the impossibility

, ,
of t w o intelligent candid and critical, ,
inquirers reaching similar conclusions o n

some relig i ous dogma when the bias , ,
native o r acquired o f the o n e m i nd is ,
towards scientific naturalism and that ,
o f the other towards ecclesiastical supra
naturalism .
I f however Huxley meant by Agnos

, ,
t ic ism the adoption o f the scientific spirit

and method there is no investigator o r
,
thinker whatever his creed who would

, ,
not to day Write himself down an Agno s

-
64 S CIE NTIFIC A GN OS TI OI SM
tic . O ne gets the impression however , ,

’
that Huxley s Agnostic must also be
hostile to conventi onal C hristianity O n
“
this latter point I have already spoken t o

you and I have no time here to enlarge
,
upon the theme As to the m ain issue .
now before us I will only repeat that if ,
Agnosticism means merely the candid

examination and criticism of evidence ,
there is no one in this scientific age of

the world who would di savow no o n e ,
who would n o t glory in the title o f

“
Agnostic .
To Agnosticism in its va r ious forms , ,
Huxley may be said to have consecrated !
his life I n o n e o f his la t est pieces o f

.
“
writing in the preface to the C ollected
,
,
”
E ssays in nine volumes which happily
, ,
he lived long enough to see through the

press — h e has put o n record the main
,
obj ects o f his active career They were .

,
in brief veracity o f thought and action

, ,
the resolute facing o f the world as it

is the unlocking o f nature s secrets by
,
’
means of science and the application of ,
scientific methods o f investigation to all

the problems of life I f he showed u h .
tiring opposition to clericalism to the ,

SCIE N TIFIC A GNO S TICISM 65
pirit o f ecclesiastic i sm
\
it was because
s ,
eve rywhere and to whatever denomination

it m ay belong , he regarded it as “
the
deadly enemy o f science .
F ew men I imagine have ever attai ned

, ,
more fully the obj ects o f their ambition “
Huxley was the great en emy o f cant lying , ,
an d pretending t o believe that fo r which

?
there is no evidence F o r this all honest .
men o w e him a debt o f gr atitude He .
earned the praise o f every investigator ,
scholar an d thinker by his splendid vindi

,
cation o f intellectual liberty And even .
theologians ! o f the future if n o t of the ,
present ) may bless him for exposing the

absurdities o f many dogmas which were
yesterday a part o f orthodox C hristianity ,
whi ch to day -— thanks in some measure

—
to Huxley have lost their baneful e n
e r g y and which dissolved in the light o f
, ,
criticism will to morrow flit to that limbo

,
-
o f superstitions errors and illusions which

, ,
fill so many volumes in the history of o u r

groping race .
All honor and glory to this brilliant

champion o f light and liberty and truth I
, ,
He saw clearly studied thoroughly an d

, ,
spoke boldly .
66 SCIE N TIFIC A GNOS TICISM
Yet Huxley had his limitations His .
horizon was restricted to his field of labor

he saw the natural world but not the su ,
p r a n at u r al which envelops it H is hand

.
was subdued to what it worked in : he

grasped the j udgments o f the intellect ,
but missed the intimations of the spirit

in man He lived in the laboratory an d
.
lecture room : no man k n ew more of the

tests and standards of p h ysic al science ,
few men knew less o f the postulates and

principles o f human conduct and life .
Huxley s defects are his excellences in

’
excess He sees nature so th oroughly

. _
,
uses his intelle c t so logically and rates ,
science so highly that he falls a victim to

,
the vices of N aturalism I ntellectualism , ,
and what ! for want o f a better word ) I

will venture to call Sc ie n t ifi c ism
’
I have already shown that evolutio nary

science furnishes no warrant for that natu
r a list ic view o f the universe which domi
nates all Huxley s speculations N ay o n e

’
.
,
may be an Agnostic as well as an E v o lu

,
t i o n iS
, t and yet recognize the divine and
suprasensible P resence in and above the
physical universe I will expla i n what I
.
mean by a comparison M artineau would .

SCIE N TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 67
agre e with Huxley in deman di ng evidence ,
instead o f authority for religious belief,
and as Huxl e y uses the term M artineau

, ,
would therefore be an Agnostic N ever .
t h e l e ss I venture to assert that no man

now living has done so much to strengthen
faith in a free moral intel ligence immanent
in yet transcending the na t ural world and
, ,
holding communion with the finite but

kindred spirits who inhabit it As bib .
li c al critics Huxley and M artineau occ upy

,
pretty much the same position ; as spirit

ual influences revealing the divine essence
,
o f things the o n e radiates light and warmth

,
fo r the E nglish speak ing world the other

-
,
stands opaque and cold beside the e x t in

u ish e d fires o f an altar to the unkno w n
g
God .
’
But if Huxley s contentment with the
mere physical interpretations o f science
was fatal to a theistic co nception o f the
world if his N aturalism left no place fo r
,
the supersensuous and divine h is de v o ,
tion to the ascertainment o f truth by

means o f logical processes incapacitated
him fo r taking a just view of the human
spirit and foredoomed him to a narrow
and o n e sided I ntellectualism
-
Knowl .
68 S CIE NTIFIC A GNOS TI CISM
edge is only one of the functions of mind .
M ere i ntellectual assent o r denial marks

but a smal l part of the essential life of
consciousness I f any o f you have read
.
Disraeli s C oni ngsby you will recall the

’
striking passage in which S idon i a shows

h o w little reason has contributed to the
great events of human history I t was .
not reason he says that besieged Troy ;

, ,
it was not reason that sent forth the Sara

cen from the desert to conquer the world
it was not re ason that inspired the Cr u
sader o r instituted the monastic orders ;
it was not reason that created the F rench
R evolution . The true gr eat n ess of man
is to be found in his capacity for forming
and cherishing ideals I n this age o f
.
brilliant scientific ach iev ements issuing in

manifold conveniences and luxuri es I fear ,
we have all been seduce d into worship

ping the golden calf of I ntellectualism .
‘
I t w o u l d ill become me in this place and
,
before this audience to disparage the

,
value of scientific investigation o r to dis

courage whole hearted devotion to the
-
ascertainment of truth But I cannot

.
forbear to observe that the spirit which

each of us is consists not of intellect or
reason alone And this discernment o f

.
the real constitution o f human nature is

not without important consequences F or .
on e thing it follows that the maxims

,
which are binding o n the scientist in

the investigation o f natur e may b e ir r e le
vant o r even injurious to the rest o f man
ki n d w h o are engaged in other a ffairs .
F o r the scientist Huxley says

, sc e pt i ,
c ismis the highest o f duties blin d f ait h

‘
”
the one unpardonable sin N o w if t his
.
be the duty o f the scientist it is not ,
the duty o f the parent o r child of the ,
statesman o r teacher o f the merchant o r

,
manufacturer o f t h e clerk o r financier

, .
N ay has not every true man faith

,
“
blind faith ”
— in his mother and in his
fri ends in his country and in the rule
, ,
of E ternal P rovidence I t is unhappily , ,
true th at the scientist s devotion to seep

’
t icism may unfit him for living that

larger life which breathes the atmosphere
o f faith .Darwin observed in his own
case an atrophy o f the poetic and aesthetic
sensibilities ; and readers o f his life will
feel that his relig i ous faith suffered decay
from the same cause C ramping and
“
w a r ping is the penalty o f specialization

70 SCIE N TIFIC A GNOS TI OI SM ’
alon g whatever line it follow But th e .
fact remains that for livi n g o u r hum an

lives faith is as essential as scepticism ‘
,
nay far mor e essential I t was h is fail

,
.
ure to comprehend the depths and riches

of the human spirit whose logical opera ,
tions alone concerned him as a scientist ,
that led Huxley to the shrine of I ntellect

u alism w hose creed
, ho w ever fruitful for ,
science becomes if applied beyond the

, ,
domain of science a de se cr at io n and blight

,
to the whole spiritual and active life of

humanity .
A few words o n what I have called

Huxley s Sc ie n t ifi cism and I will bid you
’
,
good n i ght By this term I mean to

.
designate the astonishing prejudice that

the scientific investigator t h e man who ,
has great knowledge of the nat u r al world ,
is as such an authority o n t h e things of

, ,
-
the spirit This is a preju di ce which

.
indi cates no self conceit in Huxley ; for -
he shared it with the generations that

have grown up in the atmosphere of
modern science We all want to know .
what D arwin o r Helmholtz o r any other

oracle of the natural world thought of the
moral and spirit u al proble ms which weigh
upon us We find however through

.
, ,
m ournful disappointment s that they have ,
little o r nothi n g to tell us They have .
h a d no special experience that way if in ,
deed their minds have not been closed to

this order o f reality I n consulting them
.
o u r age h as made the mistake o f confer
ring with perhaps the worst qu al ifi e d ex -
n e n t s o f the spiritual world to whom it

p o
was possible to address such inquiries .
M r Gladstone has recently recorded it as

.
,
a generalization o f his long e xperience

with E nglishmen o f every class and type ,
that the description o f persons w h o are

engaged in political e mployment o r who “
are in any way habitually conversan t with

human nature conduct and concerns are
, ,
very much less borne down by scepticism

than specialists o f various kinds and those
whose p u rsuits have associated them with
the study history and framework o f in
, ,
animate nature H o w can this latter class

.
be expected to tell us anything about that

o f which they have had n o experience ?
The oracle to consult in matters o f religion

is the man of faith and action not the man ,
~
o f scepticism and science His r e po r t s of

.
t h e spiri t ual Wo rld as ve r ified in his o w n

,
72 S CIE NTIFIC A G NO S TICISM
life are entitled to the same weight as the

,
observations verified by artificial e x pe r i

,
ment which the sc ientist reports of the

,
natural world I f the one is our aut hority

“
for scientific belief t h e other is entitled ,
to be our authority for religious faith I .
will not here name our highest authority

for belief and t rust in God I t is enough .
that you address your inquiries to any

man of action who allied himself with
moral causes and worked for spir itual
ends I take at random a product of o u r
.
o w n native soil .
Huxley says that Darwin was the in

”
c o r po r at e d ideal of a m an o f science
,
I .
shoul d say that L incoln was the in c o r po

rated ideal o f a man o f action C harles .
Darwin and Abraham L in c o ln I These

are the two greatest names of the centu r y .
The o n e wrought a revolu tion in natural

science the other in t h e affairs and insti
,
t u t i o n s of his o w n country There ar e .
strange coincidences in the lives of these

two men B oth were born on the 1 2 t h
.
day of F ebruary 1 8 0 9 The E nglishman ,

.
had the advantage of a refined home a ,
school and college education travel and ,
study abroad and the leisure o f a lifetim e

,
SCIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM’
73
to meditate and write L incoln was born .
in a log cab i n i n Kentucky went t o school

’
-
,
for less t h an a year worked as a common ,
farm laborer till he became o f age and ,
served afterwards as a boatman a clerk a , ,
s t orekeeper a soldier a postmaster and a

, , ,
surveyor until finally he became a lawyer

,
and in 1 8 84 was elected to the legislature

of I llinois F o r the next two decades
.
L incoln lived a comparatively uneve ntful

life not distinguishing himself above h Is
,
contemporaries and had he died before ,
1 85 7 the world would never have heard

his name Throughout this same period
.
Darwin in studious retirement unknown

, ,
to the public was chewing the cud o f ,
natural selection At the same time .
both men were suddenly pushed into

prominence and publicity and had fame ,
thrust upon them by the action o f illus ,
t r io u s rivals who threatened to pluck

their foreordained honors The inciting .
genius o f the one was Wallace ; of the ’
other D ouglas Alike moved to action in

, .
1 8 5 8 Darwin published the first outline

,
o f a new theory o f the origin o f species ,
w hich was destined to put him at t he

head o f mode r n science ; and L incoln de
74 S CIE NTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM
livered his divided house speech which ,
made h im two years later P resident of the

United S tates .
Never before in the history of the world

did a ruler come to so dubious and di ffi
c u l t an estate The R epublic was already
.
in the throes o f dismemberment L incoln .
himself who had been elected by a p c pu

,
lar vote a million smaller than that r e

c e iv e d by the three defeate d candidates ,
was a n obj ect of distrust and prej udice to

a maj ority of the people and of ridi cule
and contempt to a not inconsiderable mi
n o r it
.
y His party was made up of dis
cordant element s ; and the opposite party
was suspicious and hostile There were .
no leaders who commanded the confidence

o f the public either in statesmanship o r
,
in war The army small as it was was

.
, ,
scattered and many o f it s officers had

_
deserted There was no money in the

.
t r easury and the national credit was

,
sinking The seceding states which had

.
,
long been preparing for the contest im ,
mediately organize d under a strong cen

tral government ; and their organization ,
their unity o f purpose and community of

interest their previous habits and e xpe r i
,
S CIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM 75
ence their matchless g enerals and their

, ,
i mm ediately available military resources

gave them at the outset an enormous
advantage The great powers o f West
.
er n E urope manifested a cold neutrality ,
and cherished a secret hostility t owards ,
the national go v ernment ; and their Sym

pathy and moral support were gi ven to
the confederates Yet from all these dire
.
circumstances the inexperienced ma n o f

the prairies wrested immortal victory .
He united his o w n party enlisted the ,
support o f the opposition and w o n the ,
confidence o f the people At his call .
soldiers poured into the army and money

into the treasury Terrible disasters were
.
followed by brilliant victories by Vicks ,
burg by Gettysburg and by the march

, ,
from Atlanta t o the S ea Almost by ac ola .
mation the great leader was r e elected to -

.
the P residency And before sealing the

.
immortal work with his martyr s blood ’

,
he saw the confederacy overthrown the

!
union r e established and the slave set

-
,
free His mem ory is the most preciou s

.
heritage o f the American people ; they

recognize in their great war P resident
“
kindly earnest brave foreseeing man
-
, ,
76 SCIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM
a fellow worker with Divine P rovi

-
dence .
This is the man of action engaged in ,
noble struggles w hose testimony I would

,
seek in regard to religious faith If .
’
D arwin s spiritual powers were atrophied
by his absorbing preoccupation with the
phenomena of t h e natural world ; if like ,
the domestic duck whose wings he tells ,
us have become shrun ken and useless

,
from disuse the pinions of his own soul

, ,
disabled fo r w an t of exercise refuse d to

'
soar above the solid ground of nature s ’
familiar scenes and occurences ; and if

the glances he sometimes cast into the
“
depths of the distant heavens only brought

“
him a deeper sense of the heavy and the
weary wei ght of all this unintelligible
world which he nevertheless conj ectured
—
,
must hav e a Divine Artifi Ce r

-
if I say , ,
the most scientific o f theoretic inqu i rers

has no experience that brings authentic
tidings of a reality beyond the veil of
sense let us turn to the doer o f deeds o f
,
j ustice and righteousness and see whether

the orbit of his best endeavor has ever
seen the light of I nfinite Goodness or felt
the touch and thrill of Will O mnipotent .
SC E
”
I NTIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 77
N ow , it is a happy circumstance that

ou r
“
first American a s L owell calls him , ,
leaves us in n o doubt either as t o the

—
fact o f his faith in G o d o r as t o the

power which that faith gave him in doing
what history I think will pron ou nce the
, ,
supreme work o f the nineteenth century .
I ndeed L incoln talked with such Serene

,
confidence such perfect assurance o f pious

,
faith that some persons believed him t o be

,
superstitious C ertai n ly the veil between

.
t he natural and the supranatural was for

him neither thick nor opaque God ruled .
the wo r ld in righteousness and men were ,
the servants and instruments o f His rule

such was the faith that thrilled in every
”
drop o f L incoln s blood I know he
’
.
,
said to his friend B ateman n o t long befor e

the war I know that there is a G o d and
, ,
”
He hates injustice and slavery And again : .
“ ’
D ouglas don t care whether slavery is
voted up o r down but God cares and , ,
humanity cares and I care ; and with ,

’ ”
God s help I shall n o t fail A greater .
than L incoln has said : I f any man will

“
do His wi ll he shall know o f the do c

,
trine whether it be o f G o d
, M oral .
a ction is the road to spiritu al intuition .

78 SCIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM
This great truth which the world is,
always ignoring was splendidly verified

,
in and by L incoln He took his stand .
o n principle ; he did what w a s right a nd
the right approved its elf in his conscious

ness the law and will o f a righteous G o d ,
with infinite power at its disposal Thus .
right makes mi ght Thus L incoln saved .
the R epublic And I wish to say d eliber

ately after reading many lives of L incoln
,
an d t r yin g to understand the hist ory o f

/
the C ivil War that in my opinion the

,
Union could n o t have been restored with

o u t the unseen but none the less real
, ,
power which came to the nation through

L incoln s belief in G o d and confidence in
’
His moral government o f t h e world !
N or was L incoln s faith a matter o f tra

!
’
dition I t rested o n n o external auth orit y

.
whatever n o t even the Bible

, a book ,
which with S hakespeare al w ays lay o n

, ,
his table and which he read every day .
“ ” ’
No, he said in answer t o C hittenden s
question whether it must n o t all depend
“
o n o u r faith in the Bible no there is the , ,
element o f personal experience And let ,
me add that this basis o f relig i on is pre

,
c ise l y the same as that which scienc e

S CIE N TIFIC A GNOS TICISM 79
enj oys ; fo r the principle o f the uniform :
ity o f nature o n which all science rests

, ,
is simply a p ostulate o r axiom which

experience confirms but cannot demon
strate F aith in God we cannot prove
.
though it approves itsel f to us ;

I t is true that L incoln never j oined any
?
o f the churches H e had mental reser

.
A
v at i o n s about their long and complicated
statements o f C hristian doctrine But he .
said to C ongressman D e m ing that when ,
a n y church would inscribe over its altar ,
as the sole qualification for membership ,
“ ’
the S aviour s condensed statement of
the substance o f both la w and gospel
Thou sh alt love the L or d thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul and
, ,
with all thy strength and with all thy ,
mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself that ,
church w ould h e j oin with all his heart

and soul .
But this confession o f faith br ings me ’
back to Huxley whom I have t o o l o n g

,
kept in the background O nce and so far .

,
as I know once only Huxley gives us his

, ,
o w n positive conception o f religion It .
is in the es say o n Genesis ver su s N ature .
He first quotes the verse from M icah

80 S CIE NTIFIC A GNOS TICISM
And what doth the L ord require o f

thee but to do justly and to love mercy
, , ,
”
and to walk hu mbly with thy God and ,
the n he adds this statement : I f any so

called religion takes away from this great
saying of M icah I think it wantonly muti ,
lates while if it adds thereto I think it

, , ,
”
obscures the perfect ideal o f religion .
I f this was Huxley s o w n religion

’
,
and that I take to be the meaning o f the

passage then in spite of all hi s pro
,
-
,
fe ssio n al and controv ersial Agnostici sm ,
Huxley s personal faith would seem to

’
have been not so different from Li ncoln s ’

,
although it w aS pr obably neither so sure “
nor so fervent This blending o f conser

.
v at ism in essential faith qui etly and per ,
so n ally held w i th radicalism provoked by

,
disputation over unesse n tial d o gmas is ,
no unique phenomenon in human nature .
E ven Hume when he was told that he

,
h ad subverted the principles o f religion ,
replied that he threw o u t his speculations

to entertain the learned and metaphysical
world yet he did not think so differently
,
“
from the rest of the world as people im

a in e d I t may well be therefore that
g .
, ,
if we go deep enough we shall find that

SC E I N TIFIC A GN OS TI CI SM 1
the difference in faith between Huxley ,
t he Agnostic scientist ; and L incoln the ,
C hr istian state sman is n o t a funda ,
mental o n e The o n e has voiced his

.
creed in the golden text o f the O ld

Testament th e other in the golden text
,
o f the N ew ; but the Substance o f the

confession is the same in both I f this
?
.
faith be not the C hristian religion it ,
was certainly the religion o f C hrist Yet “
Huxley living was the last man in th e

, ,
world to force himself into an unwilling

communion And n o w that he is gone
.
, ,
piety forbids us to rank him with those

who might disown him L et us leave him .
,
therefore in the pomerium o f Agnosticism

,
.
But if any wise ruler in I srael if any ,
‘
inte lligent citizen o f the Civu u s D ev w ill ,
hold converse with him there and learn

somet hi ng o f his heart and life as w ell as
o f his intellect he will I thi nk return t o

, , ,
us and report in the spirit o f that pr o

found epigram in which C arlyle rec or de d
his first meeting with John S terling that ,
“ ” “
they did very well together arguing ,
copiously but excep t in o pinion not di sa

,
greeing .
PART II
P HIL O S O P H I C AL A GN O S T I C I S M
“
F or n ow w e see thr o u gh a g la ss, da r k ly;
”
n ow I k n ow in p ar t .
P H I L O S O P H I C A L A G N O S T I CI S M
TH E Agnostic is o n e who holds that he

has n o knowledge o f God o r indeed that, , ,
the human mind is incapable o f reaching

a knowledge of God Tho u gh this cree d
.
is n o t new it has reached its highest

,
potency of expression in modern times ,
and the name by which it is designated is

A
o f very recent origin . The linguistic mint

age we o w e t o P rofessor Huxley B or .
“ ”
rowing the word Agnostic from the
Gr e ek designation o f that unknown G o d
“
whose altar P aul saw at Athens he i11

l
,
v e st e d t h e imported term with a metaphys
ical meaning to which the origi n al was

neutral and indifferent and sent it forth
,
to proclaim to the modern worl d a mental

incompetency in regard to the knowing
o f God , which up to this time had been
merely implied by the more general term
o f scepticism .The new name was coined
in 186 9 That an appellation was needed
.
85
86 PHI L OSOPHI CA L A GNOS TICISM
proves that the Agnostic sect was coming

into prominence The church it would
.
su pe r se de w as an accomplished fact when

‘
at Antioch the di sciples were first called

C hristians .
The canonical writings of the Agnostic

sect all antedate the year o f its christen
ing We have not space here to examine
.
them o r even to enumerate their titles .
But whether the authors be rationalistic

or empirical philosophers C hri stian di
,
vines o r positivist scientists the b u rden

,
of their message is always the incapacity

o f the human mind to know anything but
the ph enomena o f the s ensible world o r ,
the contradictions in which it is involved

when it essays to reach I nfinite and A bso
lute R eality This is the refrain some
.
,
what monotonous it must be admitted , of

M r Herbert S pencer s metaphysics varied
.
’
,
only by denunciation o f those whose relig

ion consists in humble faith in God not ,
in confident assurance of His in c o g n iza

bl e n e ss
. This is the universal incanta
tion by which Dean M ansel would exorcise
doubt o f revealed religion as though by
,
poisoning the ch alice of natu ral knowledge

he could commend to our lips the divine
PHILOSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM 87
wine o f revelation ! B oth M ansel and M r

“
S pencer borrow the doctrine o f nescience

from Hamilton in whose sys t em it appears
t
,
as the result o f an inauspicious attempt to

combine the speculations o f Kant with
the sober home staying philosophy o f the
,
-
S cottish school With Kant and Hume

“
! w h o provoked Kant into becoming a

critical philosopher ) we reach the foun
tain heads o f modern Agnosticism N o w
-
.
? “
Kant and Hume also m ark an epoch in

f
the history o philosophy —for the rea ,
so n
, as generally stated that they were ,
the first to make knowledge itself their

problem instead o f the obj ects o f knowl
,
edge with which their predecessors had

been exclusively engaged But this is .
not a complete explanation of the special

significance o f Kant and Hume N ot .
only was knowledge itself their theme .
n o t only did they propose to discover by
analysis its nature elements and sources, , ,
but their primary interest lay in de t er m in

ing its limits — i n settling fo r all time
,
what could be kno w n and m arking o ff

from it what must forever remain unknow
able And each working in his o w n way
.
,
Kant with the prete ntious apparatus o f

88 PHILOSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM
rationalism Hume with the simple in st r u

,
ments of empiricism — reached the same

,
solution of t h e problem to wit the know ,
ableness of whatever we appreh end by

means of our senses the unknowableness
,
of any other reality B oth agree that the

.
human mind is incapacitated by its very

constitution for the apprehension o f God .
Thus it was not merely by recalling spe cu

lati o n from the obj ects of knowledge to
the kno w i n g process itself but by c on c e n
,
t r at in g atte n tion upon the limits of kn o wl

edge that Hume an d Kant gave a new
,
shape to philosophy and l aid at the same

time the founda tions o f modern A gn o st i
—
’
c ism. Hume s position however has so, ,
much resemblance to the scepticism that

constantly attended and u l timately super
,
vened upon the constructive sys t e m s of

,
ancient philosophy that o n e might with ,
o u t straining the comparison fairly recog ,
nize his earliest forerunners in P rotagoras

and P yrrho and ZE n e side m u s These are .
the prophets of the old di spensation of

Agnosticism as Hume and Kant ar e the
,
evangelists of the new or M r S pencer its

,
.
great apostle to the Gentiles .
This j uxtaposition of names will serve

PH IL OS OP H I CA L A GNOS TICISM 89
to bring o u t a truth which seems to be

little understood but which is o f the u t
,
most Si gn ificance if w e are t o see Agnos

,
t ic ism in its true perspective I t shows.
that belief i n the in c o g n izable ne ss o f God

is no accident al o r belated phase o f human
thought . Whether A gnosticism be an
illusion or an ins ight o f reason it is not
‘
merely a casual or modern eclipse o f faith .
Howeve r named it has from the very dawn

,
o f reflection haunted with its shadow the
Struggling light o f divine philosophy .
N ow a factor so permanent must spring

from constant conditions I f the doctrine
.
o f the unknowableness o f G o d appears and
reappears at every critical epoch in the

evolution o f philosophy as it certainly
,
does it would seem to have some nec

,
essary connection with the progress o f

constructive thought itself !
A careful
.
scrutiny will show that Agnosticism i s the

logical conse quen c e o f certain habits of
thought o f which the human mind can
,
with difficulty divest itself L ike every .
creation o f man philosophy is character

,
ize d by imperfection The themes o f phil

.
osophy are R eality and Knowledge But . ,
even the best system has fallen sho rt o f a

PHIL OS CP I I I CA L
-
A GN OS TI CI SM ~
perfect conception of the S upreme Being

and an infallible theory of the origin and
nature of Knowledge N or is this surpris
.
in g for philos ophers are bu t men an d they

, ,
bring to their speculative work th e views

and prej u dices of the human race N o w .
,
partly in consequence of his animal his

t ory partly as a result of his nature and
, ,
partly by the necessities of existence man , ,
tested by ideal standards is pro n e to lay,
u n due stress upon the thi n gs of se n se so ,
that he is ready to treat perceptions al one

as truth and material obj ects as the sole
reality F rom this immersion in sense
.
and matter it has been the di vine mission

,
of philosophy to redeem us But here .

,
as elsewhere the real proves r efractory to

,
the ideal ; and philosophy has not in fr e

quently succumbed to the err or she was
sent to overcome S he h as too ofte n r e
.
du ce d Knowledge to sensati on and pict ,
u r e d God after the analogy of material

things o r mechanical processes Su ch a .
knowledge cannot reveal God for neither ,
eye nor ear nor any other sense can per

c e iv e Him ; and su ch a representation o f
God as an obj ect among other obj ects easily

discloses absurdities and contradictions .
PHIL OSOP H I CA L A GN OS TI CI SM 91
Agno sticism therefore is the corollary o f

, ,
every sensational th e ory o f Knowledge

and every mechanical conception o f G o d .
But Agnosticism is also the refutation

of the sensational and mechanical ph il o so
phy o r at any rate its r e du ctio u olu bsu r du m
, .
The human spirit canno t on r eflection be

lieve either that there is n o Divine S pirit
o r that the Divin e S pirit does not reveal
Himself in the consciou sness o f man

”
Agnosticism therefore is a ch allenge to

, ,
philosophy to frame a rational theory of

Knowledge and a spiritual notion o f G o d .
And as nothing interests man so deeply

as the knowledge o f G o d we may claim ,
that Agnosticism has been the most potent

factor in the movement of the human
sp irit towards the true apprehension of its
Divine ori g i nal The Agnostic himself
.
may not always be conscious o f the func

tion which he discharges in the economy
o f thought , and he may even take mali
c io u s pleasure in the reflection that he i s a
stumbling block an d a stone of offence to

-
the theolog i ans But nothing is more

.
’
certain than that the Agnostic s demon
st r a t io n s of nescience fail to pr oduce
co nviction and their most general and
‘
,
PHIL OS OPE ICA L A GN OS TI CI SM
permanent e ffect is to prompt thought

to a consideration criticism and corre o , ,
tion o f the premises from which such a

par adoxical conclusion has been infe rred .
The effort to paralyze reason only provokes

reason to brace herself for another flight .
The theory o f nescience i s bu t t h e obverse

of the fact o f science The Agnostic .
,
in laying down the limits of Knowledge is ,
a champion o f the might of mind That .
he c an make such a demonstration is the

refutation o f what he demonstrates A
'
'
false prophet testifying to the truth he ,
reminds one of the description which

M ephistopheles gives of himself
E in Th e il vo n je n er ! ra ft ,
da s B ose w ill , d st at s das Gu t e

‘
D ie st at s sch a fft
'
u n .
L et us look at the matter a little more

closely Agnosticism a ffir ms that we can
.
not know God I ts thesis is bound up in

.
the two notions God and Knowledge ,

.
The contention is that these terms ca n

not be brought together N ow if this .
,
dogma be tenab le the reason must be ,
either in the nature of Knowledge as ,
somehow inadequate to the apprehension

of G o d or in the nature of God as some
, ,
PHIL OS OPHICA L A GNOS TICISM 9
how transcending the reach o f Knowl

edge B ot h fo r ms of proof have been
.
used b y the Agnostic The argument .

,
however in either form is fa r from con

,
c l u siv e .L et us examine each in turn ,
beginning with the supposed inability o f

Knowledge to reach to God .
. I W h y should Knowledge be di squ ali

fi e d from reporting the S upreme R eality ?
I n the long history o f scep t icism o n e and , ,
but o n e plausible answer has been g iven

,
to this question I t has been claimed

.
that Knowledge consists o f sensations ,
and that as God cannot be fel t o r seen

,
_
or heard o r apprehended by any other

sense the human cons ciousness i s i nac
,
cessible to intimations not merely o f His

,
nature but even o f His existence The

,
.
argument may be state d in different ways

by sceptics o f the ancient and o f the
modern schools but in substance it has
,
changed little since it was first put for

ward by the Greek S ophists who derived ,
it from the metaphysics of H e r a cl e it u s .
O f course G o d as a suprasensible being

, ,
must be declared unknowable if you set ,
o u t with defining k n owledge as a con

r i e s o f sensations imprinted upon the
g e
94 PHILOSOP HICA L A CN CS TI CI SM
mind by the obj ects o f the sensible world .
But as P lato already demonstrate d this

, ,
conceptio n of Knowledge is palpably false .
I t labors under three radical defects ,
which although inseparably connected

,
with o n e another it will be well for us

,
to contemplate severally .
I n the fir st place this theory treats

,
knowing as a kind of mechanical process .
I t places the material world o n o n e side

and mind as an empty chamber o n the
other ; and it pictures knowing as the
filling o f the chamber through the con ,
duits o f sense with outpo u rings from the

,
external reservoir of be ing O r to use .

,
another favorite metaphor mind accord , ,
ing to this mechanical philosophy is a ,
waxen tablet and Knowledge consists of

,
the impressions made upon it by t h e things

o f sense The bald statement o f this t he
.
ory is perhaps its be st r e fu t at io n Yet

‘
.
,
a s it is rooted in that materialism which
is implicit in the constitution o f langua ge

itself we need not wonder that popular
,
“
thought has al w ays been in bondage to

it So long as we m ust use in d e sc r ibin g
.
mental processes te rms which were origi

nally framed to signify physical processes ,
PHILOSOPHICA L A GNO S TICISM 95
so long shall we be exposed to the danger

o f conceiving mind aft er the analogy of
matter With all his sense c ir c u m spe c

.
,
tion and insight the father o f E nglish

, ,
philosophy did not avoid this error though ,
“
the third book of the E ssay o f Human
Understanding is an impressive warning
aga inst it And what in L ocke was occa
.
sio n al and to a certain extent o v e r bal

,
an c e d by a contrary view appears in the ,
latest scion o f the E nglish school as an

habitual and radical illusion ; for though
we may accept M r S pencer s personal dis
.
’
avowal o f materialism no reader can have

,
failed to observe that his philosophy o f

mind is dominated by the theory o f the
“ ” “
waxen tablet and the empty cham
”
ber. T o all such mechanical hypotheses
there is one e ffective answer The simple .
fact is that mind is n o t material o r like

anythin g material I t is a spiritual a o
.
t iv it y su i g e n e r is o f which we are imme

, ,
diat e l y consc i ous i n all its moveme n t s but -
which we can liken to nothing else what

,
ever for to it as subj ect the world and

, , ,
all that therein is stand opposed as obj ect .
And it is an equally certain fact tha t the

act of kno w i ng whatever else it m ay be
, ,
96 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CN OS TI CI SM
is no migration o f things into conscious

ness through the avenues o f sensation .
When we see o r hear obj ects the retina ,
or the tympan um is indeed a ffect ed with

, ,
vibrations o f ether or of air ; and these

disturban ces a r e transmitted by appropri
ate nerves to the cerebral tracts which
modern physiology has learned to locate :
but they do not drop over this utmost
verge o f the physical into the mental
world to which indeed they are n ot o n e
, , ,
whit nearer at t h e centre than they were

“
at the periphery of the nervous organism ;

and as for a metamorphosis o f them into
conscious ideas this is a miracle in c o m
—
,
~
parison with which the floating of iron o r

the turning of water into wine is easily
credible , a miracle too for which there , ,
i s no justi fi cation as the cons ciousness

,
which it is thus intended to produc e is

given to us as a primal and u l timate fact ,
being that which is nearest to us that of ,
which we are most assured and that by ,
means of which we know everyt hing else ,
including the cerebral tremors from which

“
it is sought to educe it The mind is .
”
its own place I n knowing it is not pos
.
sessed by but itself possesses the obj ects

, ,
P HIL OSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM 97
it apprehends Knowledge is n o t the

.
p roduct of things ; it i s the creation o f -
“
the mind Juster far than the waxen
.
tablet acc ou nt Of Knowledge is Brown

i ng s description that passage o f P ara
“
’
celsus in Which poetry and philosophy

coalesce in a climax o f beauty and sug
g e st iv e n e ss
“
Tr u t h is w it h in ou r s elve s ; it t ak e s n o r is e
Fr o m t w ar d t h in g s, w h at e er m ay b e lieve
’
ou o
y u .
T h e r e is an i n m o st e
c n tr e i n u s a ll,
Wh e e t
r ru th abi d s e in fu ln e ss ; an d ar o u n d,
Wall p u on w all, t h e gr o ss fl e sh h e m s it in ,
T h s per f e c t , c le ar pe r c ept io n
i — w h i c h is t r u t h .
A baffl in g an d pe r ve r t in g c ar n al m e sh
B in ds it , an d m ak e s a ll er r or : an d to ! NO W
R at h er co n sist s e g o u t a w ay
in o p n in
Wh e n ce t h e im pr iso n e d splen do u r m ay e scape ,
Th an in e ffe c t in g e n t r y fo r a ligh t
Su ppo se d t o be w ith o u t ”
.
I n th e place t h e theory o f Knowl

se cou ol ,
edge o n which Agnost i c i sm is ba sed misses ,
in its analysis o f the elements o f cognition

the most important constituent It sees .
in Knowledge nothing but sensations O f .
course this doctrine is o f a piece with the

mechanical conception of mind I f the .
understanding be an empty chambe r if ,
t h e cognition o f things be the filling o f

H
98 PHILO S OPHICA L A GNOS TICISM
it with impressions from without this

“
in fl o w in g material of sensation must

make up t h e entire content of Knowl
edge But we have already rej ec t ed as
.
false the mechanical accou n t of mind .
And this sensational theory of Knowl ‘
e dge is obnoxious to equally cogent o b

je c t io n s. F or when we look closely at
the facts we find that even if the sen
, ,
sat i o n al ist s contention be admitted only

’
,
the smallest part of o u r Knowle dge would

be accounted for I t might perhaps ex .
plain the qualities we attribute to sub

stances ,
— red sweet heavy etc !
, but
, , ,
what could it m ean by substances or by ,
the rel ations between them which con

st it u t e the most important part n o t o nl y ,
of ordinary experience but also o f sci ,
ence ? These constituents of conscious

ness are a standing re buke to the
sensationalist There are others of the
.
same kind among which the moral in

,
tuitions deserve a prominent place .
Taken together they prove that mind ,
is rational as well as sentient N ay .

,
more the sense element of Knowledge

,
-
is of less co n sequence than t h e thought

element . Sensations alone convey no
PHILOSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM 99
information to us ; t hey are dumb and

blan k I t is reason which present at
.
,
ev ery point with sense reads into the ,

~
impressions o f eye and ear an d touch

notions that give them meaning and
make them significant reports o f an o b
j e c t iv e world . A purely sensitive con
sc io u sn e ss could know nothing ; it could
not even apprehend its sensations ; for

apprehension is impossible without cate
o r ie s o f tho u ght to discriminate a nd
g
classify I f Knowledge were made up
.
o f sensations merely it would cease to

,
be Knowledge Thu s sensat ionalism if

.
,
logically carried o u t not only leads t o

,
religious scepticism but to u niversal nes

I t is the lion s cave fr om which
’
c ie n c e
.
,
ther e are n o tracks outwards I t m ay .
seem strange that the Agnostic scientist

should rest in a theory wh ich is n o t
more fatal t o theology than to science ;
but this only shows in w hat a lack o f
rigorous thinking his religious creed was
engendered and what immunity from
criticism any fashionable cult enj oys .
B e that as it may an exhaustive a n aly

,
sis o f cognition will disclose reaso n as

its vital principle A n d to a rational
.
10 0 PHIL OS OP H I CA L AC NOS TI OI SM ~
intelligence the existence of God is .
neither less nor more knowable than the

existenc e of the S elf or of the World .
Th e truth that mind is rational a s well
as sentient is fatal to t h e main sup

,
port o f Agnosticism — the easy argument ,
drawn from the dogma that Knowle dge

is of sensations only And with the dis .
appearance o f sensationalism wh ich is ,
fast yielding to a juster con ception o f

what Knowledge really is t h e Agnostic ,
wiseacres who have terrified the faint

hearted amongst us by pre t entiously
delimiting a n d circumscribing human
knowledge will find themselves without
,
\
a vocation N o other generation it is

.
,
safe to predict will see t he fo r ce of n e s

,
a yin g o mm scz in s e t t in
’ ’
c ie n c e l at
p e u ce g
t he bou n ds f o sci en c e . S cepti cism m ay,
”
indeed survive and manifest itself at

,
every forward step in the intellectual

development o f individuals and c o m
m u n it ie s ; for deeper doubt is the first
effect of larger knowledge ; but with
the demise of sensationalism this psycho ,
logical shadow though it continue to be

,
called Agnosticism will never again take ,
it self for the light o f ultimate truth o r

PHIL OS OP H I CA L A GN OS TI CI SM 10 1
pretend that it can pierce even to the

di vi ding o f the knowable from the u n
knowable universe .
I t has n o w been shown first that the

, ,
Agnostic misrepresents the subj e ct o f

Knowledge and secondly that h e mis
, , ,
—
reports the elements o f Knowledge The .
t hir d criticism to be made upon him is

that he misunderstands the meanin g of
Knowledge E ven if the mind were an
.
empty chamber and in knowing it were

,
filled with sensational mate rial the im ,
port o f Knowledge — that which it sig

n ifi e s would be something other than
this process o f furnishing N ow the A g
.
nostic fails to discern what it is whereof

consciousness gives us information He
“
blunders in reading the commu n icatio n ,
and he confounds the parties whom it

co n cerns . Sensationalism has so per
verted his vision that he no longer sees
realities but images o r even after images
,
-
.
He will have it that in knowing w e are

cogn izant merely o f mental states whereas ,
what we know is always some R eality and ,
it is only by subsequent reflection and

analysis we discover that sensational o r
ideational states w ere in any way in
10 2 PHIL OS OP H I CA L AO NOS TI CI SM
volved in the cognition o f that reality .
The Agnostic tells us we cannot know

“
God because states of consciousness testify

to nothing beyond themselves B ut the .
fact is that Knowledge is a report o f

R eality ; and if this fact be inc ompatible
with the supposition o f states of conscious
ness as constitutive of Knowledge that ,
s upposition had better be dismissed to

the arsenal of physical imagery from
which it has been der ived T hat in t e lli
gence should make us aware o f existence ,
and not merely o f its o w n states is no ,
mor e surprising than that anything sho u l d

be w h at it actually is How it comes that
, .
we are cognizant o f R eality is a question ,
neither more nor less di fficult than this

other which is really its equivalent
, ,
namely How comes it that we are ih

,
t e ll ig e n t beings ? Th at w e are in t el li
‘
gent beings is at any rate a fact ; and it

,
is just the nat u re of intell igence to have

converse with existence This is no the .
ory about Knowledge b u t simply a state

,
ment of what it is And the statement

.
is so self evident that it would never have

-
been questione d indeed it w o u l d not ,
have been necessary explicitly to make it

PHIL OS OP H I CA L A GN OS TI CI SM 10 3
but for mechanical theories alike o f the

kno w er o f knowing a nd o f Knowledge
, , .
N o w just as the kno w er is n o t a waxen

—
tablet but a Se lf conscious sp i rit and as
,
knowing is not the receiving o f impres

siOn s from without but creative activity
,
at home so Knowledge is n o t an a gg r e
“
gate o f miscellaneous materials in a store

house call ed mind but it is the unfolding
,
o f a living intelligence wh i ch while Open ,
to all the influences o f earth and sky re ,
mains identical with itself and so trans ,
forms o r transubstantiates what it takes

up from the environment as to make each
addition the e xpr e ssmn of its o w n life ,
a life which at every stage o f this process

o f differentiation and integration attains
n ot only to a fuller revelation but to a

more perfect realization o f its o w n in
most being .
I n the long course of this development ,
—
the essential principles of intelligence the
vital stuff o f which Knowledge is compact
—have clearly delineated themselves al ,
though they are not obscure even in the

crude thought o f primitive mankind At .
first however they are rather presupp osed

, ,
than e xplicitl y conceived or expressly de

10 4 PHIL O S OPHICA L A ONOS TI CI SM
scribed But in the dawning as i n the

.
,
full orbed intelligence there are present

-
,
_
three ideas which not only fix its circuit

,
bu t constitute also its real essence They .
are the consciousn ess o f the world the con ,
sc i o u sn e ss of self and the consciousness ,
o f God These three realities are the soul

.
o f Knowledge at once its esse n tial sub

,
stance and its ultimate goal I ts sub .
stance for Knowl edge at ev e ry stage

, ,
from that o f the savage to that o f the

scientist is a n effort to realize more
,
clearly what we mean by nature by man , ,
and by G o d ; and its goal for the pro ,
r e ssiv e movement o f Knowledge always

g
returns upon its starting points only with -
,
a more exhaustive consciousness of the

subj ect and the obj ect and of God as the ,
focal source of their opposition and their

union O f course it is n o t meant th at
.
these three elements of intelligence are

all equally conspicuous at every stage o f
its evolution whether in individuals o r
!
in communities O n t h e contrary there .

,
is first that which is natural and after

wards that which is spiritual ; first the
consciousness o f obj ects and afterwards ,
self consciousness and the consciousnes s

-
PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNOS TI CI SM 10 5
of God . however , that any in t e ll i

N ot ,
ge n ce is merely percipie n t o f the external
world ; the meaning is simply that at first
the obj ective consciousness predominates
o ver the other forms of consciousness
which nevertheless are vaguely present
, ,
even fro m the beginning The mental .
e ye looks outward upon nature before

it looks inward upon itself or upward to
the common source both o f V i s 1on and the
visible o f intelligence an d t h e intel
ligible world But though the idea o f
.
G o d is that element o f intelligence which

is latest to develop into clear conscious
ness ,
— and which must be latest for it is ,
the unity of the differenc e o f the self and ’
the n o t self which are therefore pr e su p

-
, , ,
posed , it has not less validity in itself ,
it gives no less trustworthy assurance o f

actuality than the consciousness of the
,
self o r the consciousness of the not self -

.
This is a point which philosophy has p e r

haps n o t sufficiently emphasized At any .
rate it is a point which the Agnosti c fails

,
t o appreciate F or if it is conceded that

.
there is an obj ective world o f which

something is known and a subj ective ,
Spirit of w hom something is k n own it ,

10 6 PHILOS OP H I CA L A GN OS TI CI SI I
cannot be that we are ignorant of God

o r in doubt of His existence ; L ike the
sel f and th e world G o d is given to us as
,
the presupposition of intelligence ; and

so long as this evidence accredits them it
cannot discredit Him I t might of course
.
be said that we know no realities at all

neither finite nor infinite but this view
is repugnant to common sense it rests on ,
a false ideal of Knowledge and in pra o ,
tice it is imp ossible to carry o u t Knowl .
edge cannot relax its hold on R eality fo r ,
R eality i s the substance of its story And .
the point here emphasized is that o u r

knowledge of God is t he same in kin d
as our knowledge o f the external world
o r o f o u rselves
.
I f it should be urged that in the history

,
of scepticism the divine existence has o ften

been put in doubt one m
,
, i ght retort that

the self and the world have fared no bet
t er at t h e hands of materialists and su bje c
tive idealists These historical instances
remind us of the danger of operating with
one sided abstractions and turning them
-
against each other I n the face o f such

.
arbitrary partisanship for either the sub

je c t o r the obj ect or for either the finite
,
PHIL OSO P H I CA L A CN OS TI CI SM 10 7
or the infinite the fact needs t o be stated

,
-
that as intelligence is conversant with nat

ure and self and God so it knows them
, , , ,
n o t in isolation from one another but only ,
in their mutual relation and implication .
We are n o t conscious of ourselves in sep

aration from the obj ective world : o n the
co n trary the latter nourish es o u r subj ee
,
tive life o f feeling and of cognition while ,
in volition we react against it N either

, .
do we know the obj ect divorced from the

subj ect it is we who perce i ve it ; ours are
the sensations which give content to the
perception ours the thoughts which con
,
strue it into an obj ect possessing definite

qualities o f its o w n an d having definite
relations to other obj ects in the expanse
o f an
'
all embracing space and the se

-
u e n ce o f an ever during time And as

q
-
.
subj ect and obj ect mutually imply each

other so if Knowledge is t o be complete
, , ,
they presuppose a principle o f unit y as

ground o f their connection and reconcilia
tion of their opposition O nly on rising .
“
to this unity only when we see all things
,
”
in G o d can we see things as they truly
,
are The consciousness o f G o d is the l o g

.
ical p r iu s o f the consciousness o f self and

10 8 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNOS TI CI SM
of the world .But n o t as already o b

,
served the chronological ; for according

, ,
to the profound observation o f Aristotle ,
what in the nature o f things is first i s i n ,
the order of development last J ust be .
cause God is the first principle o f being

and knowing is He the last to be ma ni
,
fe st e d and known I f this sound para

.
do x i c al it may be aske d whether all

,
experience does not show that what is

nearest to us is the last thing to be
known ; and whether therefore a pr i nc i
, ,
ple which is o n e with the very existence

of intell igence should not be t h e latest to
come i nto distinct consciousness and to
gain verification and demonstration Yet .
,
from the beginning human thought has

,
been haunted by the presence of God .
And beneath all the c r u de pict u r e s through

which the fancy and im agination o f all
peoples have endeavored to represent Him ,
we may discern the never failin g c o n c e p -
tion of God as the ultimate unity who in , ,
some way or other takes up into Himself

,
the differences o f the obj ective and t h e

subj ective world But as the consc i ous
.
,
ness of the self and the not self thus pe r

”
fe c t s itself in the consciousness of God ,

PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNO S TI CI SM 10 9
so our consciousnes s o f G o d which is n o ,
otiose and transcendent abstraction real ,
izes its elf in all o u r Knowledge of the

worl d and of ourselves I t is not mor e .
certain that the finite implies the infinite

than that the infinite moves and has it s
being in the finite I n the strictest sense
.
,
therefore nature and m an are t h e r e v e l a

, l
tion o f G o d These two volumes may be

.
compared with the O ld and the N ew T e s

tament I n both cases it is the later rev
.
elation which is the clearer M an as t h e .

,
highest point t o which evolution has at

t ain e d best expre sses the meaning and
,
drift o f the process and most clearly r e

veals the nature o f the spirit which under
lies it Still the G o d w h o reveals Himself
in man especially in the moral and spirit
,
ual life of man also reveals Himself in

,
nature . All o u r Knowledge therefore , ,
o f the finite is at the same time a knowl
edge o f the infinite I t would be passing

.
strange if the light wherewith science is

,
flooding the world and human life served

simply to disclose o u r ignorance o f God ,
o f whom the world and human life are

the express revelation This illumination
.
is surely n o t intended to smite rea son t o

110 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A ONOS TI CI SM
“
the earth or to light her the w ay t o
dusky death . And she will escape from
the confu sion into which Agnosticism
would bring her by the recognitio n that
the spirit that fills all thinking things ,
all obj ects of all thought is kn own to us

,
through o u r observations of nature and

the experience o f human history but ,
most of all in the stirrings of o u r o w n

spirit which wise men of old declared to
,
be in the image of God .
F r Om all that has been said it would ,
seem to follow beyond peradventure that

there is nothing in the nature o f Knowl
edge to warrant the dogma o f religious
nescience O n the co n trary since Knowl
.
,
edge is o f R eality and since the I nfinite

,
R eality i s known in the same way and

with the same evidence of assurance as
the finite realities of the subj ective and
-
:
obj ective consciousness ! which also pre

suppose the I nfinite Being as the ground
“
o f their un i on and reconciliation ) it i s ,
clear that unless in a mood of fi n ic al but

,
absurd scepticism we are prepared to dis

,
charge all knowledge as illusory we can ,
n ot impeach o u r knowle dge of God o r

refuse to acc ept it as trustworthy A g .
P H PL OSOP H I CA L A GNOS TICISM 11 1
n o st ic ism , so far as it rests on the sup

p osed limits o f o u r co nitive faculties is
g ,
in reality an utterly baseless dogma .
II But the Agnostic as was remarked

.
,
at the outset has another argument He

,
.
finds in the very nature o f God evidence

o f His in c o g n iz abl e n e ss This argument
.
is n o t so different from the prece ding as

might at first appear s B oth presuppose
an impassable chasm between human in
t e l lig e n ce and Divine R eality Bu t the ~
.
argument which has been already so fully

traversed imputes the estoppel of c o m m u
,
n i c at io n to a fundamental incapacity o f
the hum an mind T h e argume nt which
.
is n o w to be considered explains the ,
breach by the essential inhospitableness ,
inaccessibility o r incommunicableness o f
,
God The pith o f the o n e argument is

.
this that Knowledge by its very n ature

,
must fall short o f God The pith o f the.
other argument is this that God by His ,
very nature m u st transcend Knowledge .
The eternal divorce o f the Divine B eing

and human intelligence is the burden o f
both ; only in o n e case the ground is dis
,
covered in a Divine excess and in the ,
other in a human defect But the note .

1 12 PHILOS OP H I CA L A CN OS TI SI SM
worthy thing is that the incompatibil ity

o f this pair arises not from a fault in each
se pa r at e l
y o r in either alone but from ,
a fau lt w h ich is due merely to their con

“
'
junction for that excess o f be in g would ’
not be an excess but for this defect of

knowing and this defect of knowing
,
would n o t be a defect but fo r that excess

of being C onse quently
. in reasoning
,
from the transcendency of God the A g ,
nostic is using the same argu ment as

/
w h e n h e reasoned from the limitation o f

Knowledge only he is looking at the mat
,
ter from a different point of view ; from

the point of view o f that which is known
! or rather n o t known
) instead of that
which knows This being so it will be .
,
p ossible to dispose o f the second defence

o f Agnosticism in much less space than it
has been necessary to give t o the first .
There is one general observation how ,
eve r suggested by this argum ent for

,
Agno sticism which it will be well to

,
make i n limiu e As everybody knows .

,
the Agn ostic commends himself to men

by an air o f meekness and humility His .
disclaimer o f a much valued knowledge

which others claim to possess sounds lik e ,
PHIL OSOPHICA L A CN OS TI CI SM 113
the voice of lowly honesty and intellectual ,
modesty in a noisy w o rld of self assertive -
sh am and pre t ence ; and even when he

assumes t h e prerogative o f r ebuke and
denounces those who will not enter into
the k ingdo m o f religious nescience this ,
reputation for humility is apt to palliate ,
if it does not altogether condone t h e as ,
e r it o f his chiding while it may even

p y ,
surround him with the halo o f a great

teacher o f truth unpalatable to a generati on
o f S cribes and P harisees N o w when the
.
Agnostic comes before us no longer either

as a stern reproving prophet o r as a good
natured ironical fello w with a humor fo r
,
negations but in the guise simply o f a

,
metaphysician who is to give a reason for

the faith that is in him he cannot o f course
,
claim immunity from any legitimate c r it i

c ism to which those expose th emselves
who enter into this dialec t ical arena .
And surely no other dogmatist ever laid

himself open to a juster charge of de fying
his o w n principles S omething has al
.
ready been said o f the astounding spe ct a

cle o f Agnosticism simulating Gnosticism
in order t o fix the limits o f human Kno w1
edge But what shall we say when it
.
1 14 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CN OS TI CI SM
goes on to set limits to the nature o f God

“
Himself ? Yet this is p recisely what is

done whe n ever it is asserted that G o d is
so constituted that He cannot reveal Him
self to the thought of man How is this
“
divine impotency known to the Agnostic

who knows nothing but the phenomena of
o u r sensible experience ? I f God is abso
l u t e ly inscrutable how can yo u say He
,
must be of such a nat ure that He cannot

make a disclosure of Himself or communi
cate with His creatures ? S urely in t his ,
proclamation of the Divine dumbness the ,
Agnostic touches at once the Climax o f

logical inconsistency and the height o f
intell ectual presumption .
But what ground is there in reality fo r

supposing that the Divine B eing tran
scends the reach and compass o f human
intelligence ? I n the t h eory elabor ated
by Hamilton and M ansel and adopted by
M r Herber t S pencer this ontological
.
,
argument for religious nescience though ,
buttressed by minor considerations rests ,
for it s u l timate foundation upon two

premises which it is not difficult to isolate
from the superstructure and its adj acent
supports O ne of these premises asserts
.
PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNOS TI CI SM 1 15
that G o d is I nfinite and Absolute ; the

other asserts that man knows nothing
but the finite and the relative The lat
.
.
ter propositi on we have already canvassed

in another connection I t is derived from
.
a false theory o f Knowledge an d flies in

,
the face o f o u r actual experienc e I t has .
been shown already that the finite and

the i nfinite are kn own together and that ,
it is as impossible to know o n e without

the other as it is to apprehend an angle
apart from the sides which contain it .
This is the tr u th in the much m isu n de r

stood doctrine o f the R elativity o f Knowl
edge But not to re peat o r expand what
.
,
has already been said upon this subj ect it ,
must here be asserted once fo r all that

intelligence is not and by its very nature
,
canno t be restricted to the finite a n d the

,
relative in any sense which excludes from

its purview the I nfinite and the Absolute .
These provincial limitat i ons are altogether

artificial and arbitrary And with t heir
.
disappearance the sphere o f Universal

Being stands revealed as the proper coun
t e r par t fo r the boundless scope and em
brace o f Knowledge And when this
.
point is reached and it must be reached

11 6 PHIL OSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM
by all thinkers who accept a n y knowl edge

o f reality as t r iist w o r t h
y
— no di f
fi culty
will be created by that other proposition
“ ” “
which predicates I nfinite and A bso
”
lute of God F or the Infi n ite and A bso
.
lute is not that which excludes o r negates

the finite and the relative it is that which
,
takes them up into itself and in whose

embrace they find their truest being ; as ,
o n the other hand it realizes itself through

,
them and would be unknown without

the m . This organic and evolutionary
view at once of Being and o f Thought
is the true corrective o f t h at ontological
\
Agnosticism which derives itself from the

concept ion of God as I nfin ite and A bso
lute I f it is the nature o f the I nfinite
.
and Absolute B eing to reveal and realize

Himself in the finite and relative and if ,
it is the nature of intelli g ence to appr e

hend these realities not separa t ely but
,
t ogether how from s u ch a perfect onto

, ,
logical and psychological arrangement

fo r the meeting of the Divine Being and
the human mind can it be inferred that
,
they must remain eternally apart ? M an

ife st l y the thinkers who drew this conclu
sion did not so conceive either o f God o r of
PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNOS TI OI SM 1 17
human intelligence R e stricting the lat .
ter to the finite phenomena of space and

-
time , unwarrantably as we have already ,
seen , they set up over against these

phenomena the image o f a reality which
was not only to transcend them but which , ,
as infinite was to be me r ely the negative

,
o f the finite and which as absolute Was to

,
stand o u t o f all relation to it S uch a .
metaphysical idol we can ne v er o f course

know for it is cunningly devised after
,
the pattern o f what Knowledge is n o t .
P recisely because we are intelligent beings

must we be ignorant o f this nonentity .
I f it were real and therefore in relation

,
t o other reality we should have no trouble

,
in knowing it were it n o t that the

,
Agnostic obj ects forsooth to knowing, ,
by means o f o u r intelligence because it

is a relating intelligence as though seeing ,
should be forbidden to the eyes and e n

j oine d upon the hands o r ears T o know .
,
to think to comprehend is to compar e and

,
discriminate — t o set o n e thing against

another and to note their differences and
resemblances I t is in this way that
.
intelligence has come into possession o f

—
the intelligible w orld fi n it e and infinite
118 PHI L OSOPHICA L A G NOS TI CI SM
al ike . I dentity and difference are the

poles about which all knowledge revolves .
C omparing i s the essence o f the cogn itive

fun ction We know man in relation t o
.
nature and nature in relation to man and ,
we never know either tr u l y till we know

both in relation to God But the Agnos .
tic sets u p the invisible pictu r e of a G r a n d

E tr e formless and colorless in itself a b
, ,
so l u t e l y separated from man an d from

the world blank withi n and void with
ou t, its ver y ex i stence indistinguishable
from its non existence -
and bo w ing
,
do w n b e fo r e this idolatrous creation he

'
pours o u t hi s sou l in l amentations over

the in c o g n izabl e n e ss of such a mysterious
and awful nonentity ! The truth i s that
’
the Agnostic s abstraction of a deity is
unknown o nl y because it is unr eal A nd
his argument has no bearin g upon o u r
knowledge of God The Divine B eing .
,
whose vesture is nature and whose image

man the E ver active C reator in whom we
-
,
and all things live and move and have o u r

being ; the Holy S pirit who nourishes ,
the world and communes with the chil

dren of men : this L iving G o d is kno w n
precisely because He doe s come into r e
PH IL OS OP H I CA L A ONOS TI CI SM 1 19
lation with H is creatures ; nor i s He

recognized by the intellect alone — the
heart o w ns Him with pious and reverent
affection t h e will bows before His right
,
eons law and o u r whole soul yearning

, ,
as it does for the F ather of S pirits is ,
quickened and refreshed by His prese n ce .
This symphony o f response from all sides

o f o u r nature confirms reason s assurance
’
that G o d is not concealed from mortal

ken ; that though the infinite depths o f
His be i ng are beyond o u r present vision ,
“
we yet see through a glass darkly and ,
while not omniscient really , know in

part P artial as it is it is this vision o f
,
the D ivine which t r an sfi gu r e s the life o f

man o n earth .
Agnostici sm is only a transitional and

temporary phase o f thought The human.
mind can no more surrender its belief in

God than its belief in a world or in a self .
C ontemporary Agnosticism strange as i t

,
may sound is in part due t o the great

,
advance which Knowledge has made dur

ing the last half century it i s blindness
from excess of light The astonishing
.
results o f scie n tific investigation have

’
12 0 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A C NO S TI OI SM
’
give n us new insight into the physical

universe and the life o f mankin d ; and
though i n consequence o f the immanency
,
d
o f t h e I n fi n it e in the finite e v e r e n l ar g e
z
, y v
ment and rectification o f o u r view o f man

and nature must also involve growth in
o u r knowledge of God the first effect o f
,
this advance has been merely a revolt

against the partial and inadequate r e pr e
se n t at io n s o f G o d which popular thought
h as in h erited from the ages that antedate

the birth o f mode r n science B u t the
.
Agnostic fever seems already to be burn

ing o u t . And as reason cannot escape
from its three fun damental ideas nature — ,
self G , o d — a n d the development o f rea
son consists in enriching t h e content o f

each and adjusting them harmoniously to
o n e another it cannot be doubted
,
— and
the history o f hu m an tho ught confirms
—
the expectation that reason s next step ’
will be to modify or reinterpret the idea

o f God so as to inform and harmonize i t
with the revelation which science has de

ciphered in the operations of nature and
the life o f humanity N ay has n o t rea
.
,
son already to some extent ac complished

her task ? D oes n o t the light already
PHIL OS OP H I CA L A ONOS TI CI SM 12 1
shine for all w h o have eyes to see ? The

conception o f God as spiritual and n o t
mechanical ; as immanent not external ;
as working by law not by caprice and ,
with steady infinite patience not by c a

‘
t a st r o ph ic outbursts ; as adumbrated in
nature and revealed 111 the moral and
spiritual qualities o f man who is t he goal
,
of evolution and the epitome and abr idg

ment o f existence is n o t this conception ,
in combination with the idea o f the Divine ”
F atherhood ! which is the essence o f C hris

t ian it y)
, taking possession o f the best
spirits in the modern world and disl o dg
ing the Agnosticism by which it was pre
ceded and by which in a sense it was
, ,
originated ? E ven the greatest o f living

Agnostics ,
—M r Herbert S pencer
. while ,
still strenuously denying that we know

anything about G o d yet advances so far
,
as to posit the existence o f God as indis

pensable first principle both o f knowing
and o f being .
But apart from the peculiar perplexity

into which o u r age has been brought by
the attempt t o assimilate such an u n par
all e l e d mass o f n e w knowledge both o f ,
ourselves and o f the world A g nosticism ,

12 2 PHILOSOPHICA L A CN OS TI OI SM
n ow , as in the past has been provok ed by

, ,
and is a reaction from the excessive dog

,
m at ism of metaphysical theology I nde ed .

,
many half educated persons call them

“
selves Agnostics m erely to indicate that

they do not believe the thirty n i ne arti -
cles o r some other churchl y creed The .
shepherds of the flock judged by the arti

,
cles of faith make such claims to o m n is

,
c i e n c e that the silly sheep in sheer recoil , ,
delight to browse o n nescience The .
the ologians have sown the wind o f

Gnosticism and the y are reaping the
,
whirlwind o f Agnosticism The harvest .
—
will compel them it is now compelling
—
them to reconsider what and how they
sow And the analysis already made by
.
the late Dr Hatch in his Hibbert L ect

.
“
ures awakens the hop e that C hristian

.
,
theology having at last become conscious

,
of its origin and nature will slough o ff ,
what this learned writer designates its

‘
da mn o sa h e r e di t a s : its affectation of in
fallible metaphysics ; its supposition that
the C hristian revelation whi ch is the set ,
ting forth o f certain facts authenticates ,
and guarantees speculations t ich are

built upon those facts The speculative .
PHILOS OP H I CA L A CNOSTI CI SM 123
habit was foreign t o primitive C hristian

ity I t is the i n v m ci bl e residuum with
.
which the Greek world though van ,
u ish e d endowed the victorious C hristian

q ,
chu rch The tendency t o uncontrolled

.
speculation h ad been inwrought into the

intellectual fibre o f the time through the
pervasive influence o f Greek idea s ; and
C hristianity could o f course be received
,
”
only through this medium o f appr e h e n “
sion The S ermon o n the M ount pro

.
- 4
claimed a new law o f life ; it assumed

religious and ethical conceptions without
attempting to justify o r eve n to fo r m u
late them ; it c ontained n o articles o f
faith ; it knew nothing o f metaphysic s or
speculative the ology F rom this simple
.
starting point as Dr Hatch shows the

-
,
.
,
speculative habit which the Greeks had

ingrained in the mind o f the world engen
dered the abstract and dogmatic meta
h
p y si cs o f the N icene C reed To a u nity .
o f belief in the fundamental facts o f Chris
t ian it y which was insisted upon from the

,
first succeeded the demand fo r a u n ifo r

,
mity of speculations in regard t o those

“
facts . The holding o f approved O pin
ions was elevated t o a position at first
12 4 PHIL OS OP H I CA L A CNOS TI CI SM
co -
ordinate with and at last superi or t o , ,
trust i n God and the effort to live a holy

life . Thi s is the bequest o f Greece to
C hristian thought which Dr Hatch char
ac t e r iz
.
e s as the da mn o sa he r e di t a s “
It .
”
has he says
, given to later C hristian
,
ity that part of it which is doomed to

perish and which yet while it lives
, , ,
holds the key of the prison house o f many -
” 1
souls I t is that part also we must add
.
, ,
which has been most prolific o f A g n o st i

c ism The c laim of the church to pos
.
session o f an infa llible knowledge has

involved it in warfare with natural sci
ence and with historical scholars hi p And .
-
so far as Agnosticism represents not reli

i u s nescience but freedom of thou ht
g o , g
and inquiry it has deserve dl y triumphed
,
at every point The church is learning .
to leave to s cience and scholarsh ip t h e

things that are theirs But it needs if .
,
Agnost i c i sm is to be completely disarmed ,
1 Th e H i bbe r t L e ct u r e s, 1 8 88 . Th e I n flu en ce of
G r e ek I de as up o n t h e Ch r ist ian C h u r ch B y t h e lat e .
E dw in H at ch , D D , R e a de r in E c cl e si ast ical H ist o r y

. .
in t h e U n iv e r sit y of O xf o r d . Th e q u o t a t i o n s ar e
fr o m L e ct u re V, on w h i ch o t h e r h ist o r i cal st at e m e n t s
o f t h is pa r a g p
r a h ar e al so b ase d .
PH IL OS OP H I CA L A CN OS TI CI SM 12 5
to learn one other lesson : nam ely that ,
as the religious life is vastly more impor

-
tant than the intellectual apprehension o f

its nature or conditions so n o interest o f
,
religion demands that we shall define pre

c ise l y o r circumscribe with a fence o f
words the I nfinite P ersonality that lies ~
beneath o u r faith and worship I t is .
“ ”
forgotten that we kno w o nl y in part .
F urthermo r e fo r religion a s fo r ar t and

, ,
life the Vague has as much worth an d

,
significance as the D efinite I t is other .
wise with science whose organ is the

,
intellect But it is a mere prej udice o f

!
—
the intellect a pr ejudice against which
the feelings and imagination must always
—
protest that we should deem what is
vague t o be less real than what is definite .
O n the contrary the Vague i s i n actual

, ,
experience not seldom far more real

,
.
And those who in ignorance o f this

,
truth endeavor t o com press it into fixed

,
categories o f thought are always in dan

,
ger o f dissipating its essence The theo .
logical habit o f defining wh at is known

“ ”
only in par t and setting up the de fi n i
tions as standards o f orthodoxy is a seri ,
o u s dange r t o true religion As such .

12 6 PHILOSOPHICA L A GNOS TICISM
metaphysical dogmas multiply A g no st i ,
c ism must abound .
But though theological omniscience has

bee n a most fruitful cause of religious
nescience it remains lastly to mention
, , ,
another influence which though less o bv i ,
ous has been no less potent I t may be

, .
described as the Z e i tg ei st the spirit o f the,
age the whole form and pressure o f the

,
time O urs is an era of material progress

.
,
o f useful inventions o f great practical a m

,
bitions and achievements We have anni .
h il at e d space and time and made force and

matter our docile servants But t h e hand .
is subdued to what it works in and these

mater i al operations and utilitarian ends
have undoubte dl y reacted upon o u r o w n
spirits They have imbued us with me
.
c h a n i c al modes of thought and material

standards of worth The y m ake it c o n c eiv
.
able that man himself is only a machine

a some w hat finer mac hi ne than the prod
-
u c t s of his own skill I N ow with this con

c e pt i o n of personali ty and this estimate of
hum an dignity faith in man and faith in

,
God cannot easily survive ; an d A g n o st i

c ism is then merely the outward record of
a Spiritual paralysis already accomplished .

PHILOS OP HI CA L A GN OS TI CI SM’
12 7
And to this blight o f practical material

ism came as ally the Darwinian doctrine
, ,
o f the descent of man Whether c o r

.
r e ct l
y o r n ot
, D arwin
’
s hypothesis was in
t e r pr e t e d as degrading man from little

less than angel to little more than ape .
That such an animal sh o uld be t h e image

and revelation of G o d seemed in credible
,
.
As P ascal has well said it is dangerous to

,
let man see too clearly how he i s o n a level

—
with the animals without showing him h is

greatness The effect in the present case
.
was the rise o f an evolutionary A g n o st i

c ism which strengthened the Agnosticism
o f everyday life and interest And both.
were reinforced by the Agnosticism o f

certain men o f sc i ence who insisted o n r e
“ ”
serving the appellation o f knowledge
fo r the mechanical processes o f weighing ,
co u nting t im i ng a nd measuring Alto

, ,
.
gether the general sp i rit o f the age both ,
o n its practical and theoretical Side has ,
been strikingly favorable to the rise of

Agnosticism .
But the historical and psychological

causes which produce a dogma are n o t at
the same time a guarantee o f its t r uth .
The premises o f Agnosticism we have

12 8 PH IL OSOPH ICA L A GNO S TI OI SM
al ready shown t o be false Whe n the .
baselessness o f this dogma which is seem

,
in g ly so mod est yet really so pr e su m pt u

o u s comes t o be generally recognize d w e
, ,
may expect to see it di sapp ear And u n .
less all signs are misleading t h e night is

,
already far spent and the dawn is at hand .
But as we strain o u r eyes t o catch the

,
first glimpses o f the blessed morn; let us

remember that but fo r it s humiliation and
,
chaste ni ng in the vall ey o f t h e shadow o f

Agnosticism the human mind would n o t
,
in o u r generation hav e initiated the most

important reform since the R eformation ,
the su bst i t u t io n o f the spiritual religion o f

l
C hrist fo r the speculative r eligion o f Chr is

t e n do m .
S P I R I TUA L RE LI G I O N I T S E VO
L UT I O N AND E SSE N C E
“
B u t th e hou r c om e th , a n d n o w is, w h e n th e
tr u e w o r sh ipp e r s sh a ll w or sh ip th e F a the r in
”
zz
t
sp r an d in tr u th .
S P I R I TUA L R E L I GI O N 1
E VE now and th en we hear the

RY .
requiem o f religion chanted alike by the

“
Spirits w h o mock an d by the pious souls

”
who have no language but a ery I sup
'
pose we shall always have p r ofessional

mourners But it is greatly to be desired
.
that their services should n o t be prema

t u r e ly given I f there is anything in the
.
world that is alive and acti ve it is j ust ,
this religious Spirit for whose demise cer

tain mourners go about the streets The .
body of religion changes the spirit and ,
the life abide forever T o the assertion .
that religion is defunct I reply by po m t in g ,
to the intense interest which men to day -
everywhere feel in religion I t was r e .
ce n tl
y stated by a M assachusetts j udge
Burke observed truly that we Americans
1 Th is a ddr e ss w as fi r st gi ven b ef o r e t h e L ib e r al
Clu b of B u ffal o , an d a ft er w ar ds b ef o r e a milar
si
c lu b in B o st o n .
13 2 SPIRITUA L RELIGION
like to appeal to the law that the re is

-
‘
nothing in the world perennially interest

ing but religion The ground of this
,
.
dict u m is to be found in the constitution

o f humanity ; for the human soul which
the things of sense fail to satisfy can

attain its true home an d its complete self
realization only in conscious communion
with the S pirit behind the veil What .
“
better e v idence of the vitality o f religion

is needed than the fa ct that millions of
o u r people g o every S u nday to church ,
notwithstanding the crudeness o f so many

ecclesiastical dogmas and the sonorous
1n an it i e s of so many pulpits ? M en are
-
too str ongly convinced of the reality and

significance of religion to be driven o u t o f
the temple by a caricature of it s heart u p -
lifting services and ordinances F urther

.
more I assert as a matt e r o f observation

—
, , ,
that there is no topic not even politics

—
,
and still less science o n which men are
so anxious to be instructed M an feels

.
himself akin to the All F ather and he

-
,
wo u l d fain know more of the conditions

o f his sonship .
There are no doubt religio u s changes

, , .
But change is a sign of life What is .

SPIRITUA L RELIGION 13 3
dead is rigid and fixed What lives .
grows develops and realizes its essence

, ,
through d ifferentiation I n this respect .
the development of religion is analogou s ‘
t o that o f philosophy science art or any , , ,
other element o f civilization C ompare .
the science of to day wi t h the science of

-
the age o f savagery The i n vestig ation .
of nature s laws merely for the sake o f

’
knowing them would have seeme d to

primitive man an insane pursuit The .
goal o f his endeavor was to fill an empty

stomach and so maintain a prec arious ex
ist e n c e.I f he used his mental faculties ,
if he observed and made inferences it was ,
t o procure food t o escape perils and to

, ,
overcome rivals F o r fallacious reason

.
ing for imperfect observation the penalty

, ,
was death I n that universal struggle fo r

.
existence only those properly adapted to

,
the environment could survive This is .
the r eason why there is so much truth and

w isdom in what we call the vulgar o r
,
,
common sense view o f t hings I t is the

-
,
.
deposit o f the experience of the race tested

by its adequacy for life But this com !
m o n knowle dge kept all the time expand

ing I n ministering t o their physical
.
134 SPIRITUA L RELIGION
wants men were un wittingly in th e ser

,
vi ce o f the ideal They noticed their five.
fingers and invented arithmetic They

, .
measured land and or i g inated geometry

, .
They used the lever an d d iscovered the ,
first principles of physics Th eywatched .
their flocks under the kindly eyes o f ni ght ,
and looking upward they dreamed o f the

, ,
secrets o f the heavens Astronomy is o u r .
most perfect scienc e By it we regulate .
o u r watches take o u r be ar in g s at sea and

i
,
land and predict solar and lunar

!
on ,
eclipses Thin k o f the astronomer if yo u

.
,
would realize v ividly the growth o f human “
knowledge from its beginnings with o u r

rude progenitors who co u l d not count
“
their fingers ! The poor savage had no

chronometer but his s t omach As a .
matter of fact he meas u red t h e lapse o f

,
time by the rec u rrence o f hunger The .
word meal means originally t ime

“ ” “ ”
.
And the redupli cation meal time w hi ch -

,
i s n o t merely a pecul iarity of o u r lan

guage shows that the sense o f time in
,
primitive man was pregnantly stomachic .
Time ! Time ” like the rising reverbera

tion of a di nner bell ! The measurement -
of time amongst ourselves is a str on omica l ;

amongst ou rearliest ancestors it was g a s

t r on o mi cu l Would you see at a glance
.
the evolution o f human science ? Then

note its rise i n an empty stomach and its
progress often slow and always toilsome
, ,
t o the mastery o f the laws o f the celestial

universe .
M an has evolved the arts have evolved

, ,
science has evolved E volution means

.
growth and progress ; there is nothing

but has evolved anywhere m this universe
of God . I t would be strange indeed , ,
were there n o evolution o f religion I .
care not h o w o n e defines religion whether ,
o n e fills it with super stition or empties it
o f everything but emotion whatever it

is it has come to be what it is it has had
, ,
a history and it is now in process of

,
development .
L ook first at the development o f relig

io n ih the individ u al m ind The mind o f
.
the child is wax on which parents and,
nurses and teachers set their seal O ur .
earliest education consists in appropriating

the ideas and beliefs o f those about us .
C hildren get many o f them more o r less ,
consciously with language ; and their

,
mimet ic instinct j oined with their curi

,
13 6 SPI RITUA L RELIGI ON
o sit keeps them constantly addi n g t

y , o
the first stock How much there is for

.
any one mind to learn from the mind of

the race I A lifetime would be insufficient
for any o n e of us t o acquire and assimilate
the mental products whi ch the previ ous
generations have transmitted The ut il ity .
of such general information is also obvious

enough Yet I wish to point o u t that
.
something else besides the absorption o f

pre existing material is requir ed t o make
-
a man Unquestioning recipiency how

.
,
ever far you carry it is only the i n fantile

,
stage o f education M any persons per

.
,
haps the maj ority never go very much ,
farther they believe what they are told ,
and consider themselves learned when

they have been told a great deal I k now .
an encyclop ae di c professor of theology

w h o said to a doubting student : “
S ir ,
I never had a doubt in my l ife That .
man s mind was like the mind o f a little

’
child n o t in its guilelessness which is a

, ,
C hristian virtue but in its absolute de

,
’
n d n c e upon others thought
p e e .
The great Teacher bade men live each

his o w n individual life hee dl ess of the ,
rules and tra ditions of S cribes and P hari

SPIRITUA L RE LIGION
sees Th is is the second stage in t h e

.
development o f th e soul The first stage .
is that o f acquiescence and absorption in

custom tra ditio n inherited beliefs and
, , ,
sacrosanct formul ae These are o u r first

.
schoolmaster s ; and the discipline t hey

give us is invaluable The impression
.
they make is so deep and lasting that

many persons never pass t o the higher
stage o f free and independent manhood .
Yet there is probably in every mind a ”
certain g r owth in this direction I n the .
best minds the tendency is so strong

that it issues in what consi dering its ,
nature and its e ffects, we may designate

a spiritual puberty I t is a coming o f
.
age o f the master o f the house who has ,
hithe rto been kept in leading strings -

.
He i s disposed to call everybody t o

account He despises tradition sneers
.
,
at custom doubts the certainties of the

,
cr eeds and finds that nothing is in du bi

,
table on earth o r in heaven The aSS1m 1 .
lating soul has become reactive ; the

unchained Titan fl in g s himself against
every restraining authority This is the .
stage of doubt that follows in normal

mental development if this develop
ment is carried along naturally upon

the stage of credulity and acquiescence .
I n some form though not perhaps in

,
thi s violent degree every thoughtfu l youth

,
must be conscio u s o f such an e xperience .
I t is certainly no uncommon thi ng to see

, ,
the credulity and submission o f youth ‘
give way to doubt denial and fi r e eyed, ,

-
defiance But this is an abnormal con di

.
tion of the soul ; from the nature o f the ‘
ca se it cannot endure I t i s m fact

, .
, ,
the hurric ane which precedes the settled

calm it is the darkness o f chaos ere the
”
spirit says “
, L et there be ligh t The .
third stage of mental development

happ y is he who attains thereunto !
consists in the readjustment o f the o l d
material to the new in the discovery o f ,
a higher standpoint in the attainment o f ,
an ultimate view of things broad eno ugh

to embrace all the facts we know o f man
and nature and God in such harmonious ,
relations as will satisfy the demands o f

the scientific intellect and the yearnings
of that human heart whereby w e live .
C redulity doubt reasoned belief o r

, , ,
faith : these are the three ph ases of ment al

development and therefore they are the
, , ,
SPIRITUA L RELIGION 139
three stages o f the evolution o f religion in

the individual soul Th e child lives by
.
’
faith as by his mother s milk ; the youth ,
conscious o f strength revolts against the

,
powers that have held him in tutelage ;

t h e man regains peace by a larger knowl
edge and a riper experience through ,
’
which the youth s doubt is overcome and
’
the child s faith essentially vindicated .
S cepticism is we may say only a halt ing

, ,
place not a goal ; it is the growing pai ns

,
-
o f the spirit .
A g nosticism is the apotheosis o f sc e p

t ic ism I t is scepticism as a creed as
.
,
a system as an ultimate resting place

,
-
.
Those who procla i m i t strangely misread

the processes and the conditions o f o u r
sp iritual life They make the aimless
.
gropings o f the youthfu l intellect an ideal

for t he thinking o f mature men O nly .
,
instead o f the awful earnestness of the in

quiring youth they often affect an in diffe r
,
ence to the great problems which oppress

him As though we could be indifferent
.
to the highest interests o f the human

spirit ! S o long as life lasts so long must ,
we strive t o grasp the ultimate truth o f

things To shut o u r eyes t o problems is
.
SPIRITUA L RELIGION
an ostrich policy M an is call ed by an

.
inner voice to strive and strive and strive

, , ,
and not t o yield Agnosticism would

.
er adicate thi s noble endeavor Its only .
justification so far as I c an see is that

, ,
men never attain the absolute truth but

”
only make succes sive approximations to it .
But this very fact indicates with reason

able clearness that God meant our life to
be one of constant and progressive e n
de av o r
. S uch was in the l ast century
, ,
the faith o f L essing and in this o f , , ,
Browning O u r religious thought is to

.
be o n the growth The compl aint that

.
no system is final rests upon a m isappre

h e n sio n of the nature of thought ; for
thought realizes itself only in contin u ous
progression The evolution o f religious
.
belief is necessitated alike by the c o n st it u

tion o f the mind and by t h e inexhaust ible
character of the divine obj ect o f religion .
Agnosticism is a passing fever Of juv enile

free thinking
-
.
S o much then o f evolu t ion from the

, ,
po int o f view of the individual soul But .
religion has also an obj ective side I t is .
a system of doctrine and worship em

bodied in the creeds and rituals of the
churches When we speak o f the e v o lu

.
tion o f religion it 1s o f this body o f

l
,
do g m a s w e think first After the sketch .
I have give n o f the development o f relig

ion in t he individual mind it will not be ,
so difficult t o trace the development o f

religion as an obj ectiv e system and in sti
t u t io n that is as an esta blished doctrine
, ,
and mode o f worship Hitherto we have .
regarded religion as a proc e ss in the m ind

~
o f the single person ; now we are t o r e
gard it as a product o f the mind o f h u

manity .
The first thing t o be noted in the early

history o f religions isthat dogma occupies
a quite inconspicuous position With the .
history o f C hristianity before o u r eyes ,
this statement see m s paradoxical But .
the fact is that C hr istianity differs from

all earlier religions in its insistence o n
articles o f faith Yet this dogmatic spirit
.
,
as modern c riticism shows was a late ,
developme n t in the C hristian church and ,
a foreign graft upon primitive C hristian

ity N ot belief but ritual is the key
.
, ,
note o f primitive religions Their essence .
is a cult not a creed Th ey pres cribe

, .
’
modes in whi ch God s anger may be
averted or His favor enj oyed I t is true .
that all religion presupposes the exist

ence of God But I firmly believe that
.
no rational b eing has ever permanently

doubted or will ever conti nuously doubt
, ,
the existe n ce of God though men have ,
called Him by different names which best ,
seemed to them to express the in fi n it u de

o f His nature .
C ertainly for the primitive r aces o f men ,
God was an ever present a never ques -

,
-
t io n e d reality They conceived o f Him in

.
the t w o ways which all later thinkin g has

followed either as a Great Hum
, an S pirit
o r as a Great Na tural P ower though never ,
exclusively one o r the other Under the .
latter aspect God was terrible as the dev

,
a st a t in
g storm o r the rattling thunder ;
under the former He was the mild and

,
kindly F ather o f the tribe Acco rding .
to their experience and environment ,
primitive men inclined to the one o r to

the other o f these conceptions o f the God
head . The tribes that personified the
powers o f nature dwelt in fear and trem
bling w ith a haunting sense o f alienation
,
from the terrible R uler o f the world ,
though with t h e c o n v ic t i o n also that the

’
God m ight be ren dered friendly The .
tribes that practise d ancestor worship -

,
m ak in g G o d their F ather enj oyed a sense ,
o f union a n d communion with the Divine
S pirit who deigned to j oin them at the

,
common meal and sit with them round

the common hearth F o r either class o f .
”
w orshippers religion c onsisted l n cult ,
and in cult only There religion meant

.
,
the rites and ceremonies m any o f them

!
—
very absurd by which the hostile natu re
God was w o n over to friendship with
man Here religio n meant the pouring
.
,
o u t o f lib ations and the offe ring o f food
to the ancestor G o d who guarded the

-
homes o f his children I n both cases .
religion consisted o f practices not o f be ,
lie fs There was room fo r he t e r o p r a xy

.
-
,
or an error in ritual ; but there was no

room fo r he t e r o doxy o r an error in belief
-
, .
Hence among the Greeks — who are the ,
authors of art science literature and

, , ,
philosophy who in fact originated all

, , ,
occidental civilization with the single ex

c e pt io n o f religion
“
the notion o f her
,
-
es
y” was absolutely unknown There .
c ould be no heretic in the primitive w dr l d .
C ult was the first stage in the evolut ion

o f religio n .
The second stage is that o f c re ed o r

dogma This is a step in advance of c u l t
.
o r ritual ; for it presupposes considerable

de v elopment o f the intellect I have
“
already said that cults imp ly the elements

o f a creed God s existence and man s’ ’
,
power o f influencing God ; but this be

lief is i mplicit latent unconscious and
, , ,
overlaid by ritual I t becomes explicit .
and predominant with the growth o f h u

man experien ce and reflection The creed .
may be t h e philosophy o f a pre existing -
ritual I f so belief in the creed becomes as

.
,
necessary as the performance o f the ritual .
But the cree d may transcend national

traditions ; it may o ffer a n e w the ory o f
God s will concerning man o r o f man s
’ ’
relation to God Thus the Hebrew

.
prophets of the eighth and followi n g cen

t u r ie s endeavored to te ach t h e nation ,
which had given itself up to forms that ,
God sought justice mercy and truth an d , , ,
could not away with their sacrifices and

burnt offerings The burden of the Gos
.
pels again is just the fatherliness of God

, ,
and the revelation o f His love t o man .
But such simple undeveloped cree ds are

,
not the most striking varieties of the spe

cies Fo r t hese we must have a body o f

.
doctri n es belief in which is necessary to

,
sal vation The perfect dogmatist declares

.
that we are saved by faith and by faith

he means acceptance of a number o f
proposition s formulated by some council
o r synod .The believe r win s Heaven ;
the doubter let him be a n a t he m a
Among M ohammedans the standards r e,
quire acceptance o f the P rophet as the

messenger o f God I t is n o t so easy to
.
describe the creed of the C hristi an church .
F o r unlike the M ohamm edan the C hris

, ,
tian nations have been characterized by

progress and progress means more vitality
,
.
That which lives changes and varies The .
creed of C hristendom i s not fixed but ,
plastic ; it is not one but many O nly

, .
d eath gives the rigidity and uniformity

which those good souls desire who are
always seeking the living amon g the dead .
A living religion is like an organic species ;

it never i s but is always be comin g ; it is
always passing into new v ar 1 e t ie s What .
life there has been in C hristianity to pro

duce all the creeds o f C hristendom ,
the creed o f the C atholic the creed o f the

,
P rotestant t h e creed o f the E piscopalian

, ,
14 6 SPIRITUA L RE LIGION
the creed o f the P resbyterian t h e c r eed o f ,

’
the I ndependent the creed o f the ! uaker

, ,
and the c re e ds of all the forgotten de n o m i

nations who m the church outlawed for
heresy But o n e thing is common to all
these doctrinaires they hold tha t dogma
is t h e essence o f religion and each claims ,
that his dogma is not merely truth but t h e

truth R eligion is right belief o r ortho
.
,
doxy and orthodoxy is my doxy while ,
a doxy other than mine is h eterodoxy .
The stag e o f creed is higher than the

stage o f cult We must also observe that
.
the lower is taken up i n the higher as an ,
instrument fo r it s expression Thus in

r
.
‘
the historic church o f R ome while dogma ,
is the soul ritual is the body of religion

, ;
.
The rites and ceremonies which constitute

the religion of cult as well as the beliefs
,
they imply are absorbe d and not Only

, ,
absorbed but transcended by the relig ,
io n o f creed But not only does this

.
latter make dogma the primary and e s

se n t i al element o f religion it also m u l ti ,
plies indefinitely the articles o f faith I .
cannot here analyze the creeds of the

churches I t will suffice to o bserve that
.
“
,
howsoever they may differ i n details of

SPIRITUA L RE LIGION 1 47
doctrine they all agree in furnishing a

,
theory o f the Divine e xistence and govern

ment a theory o f the origin and destina
,
tion o f man and a theory o f the creation

, ,
course and final purpose o f the world

, .
These are all vast nay they ar e infinite, ,
subj ects and it is not surprisi n g that the

religious mind , in grappling with them ,
should have fallen short o f the absolute

tru th Wh at else could have been ex
.
y
c t ed ? C ertainly the natural under

p e
standing is prone to error ; and even if ,
we suppose G o d t o have made a supra

natural communication to chosen spirits ”
,
we can only appreh end as much o f that

message as o u r finite intellects can com
pass I n other words given a revelation
.
, ,
o r given no revelation o u r kno w ledge o f ,
the ultimate mystery of things is but par

tial pr O V1s1o n al and true in a relative
, ,
sense I n t he p a st t he c hu r c he s ha ve a ll
.
sin n e d t hr o u g h ig n or i n g t hi s ider a ti on
c on s .
They hav e claimed to be in posses sion of

the final and absolute truth about nearly
e verything The C hristian churches knew
.
that the earth stands still with heaven ,
above and hell beneath They k n e w t h at .

t
the world was create d in six days and so ,

much of it each day They knew e xactly

.
how the first man and the first woman

came into e xistence They kn ew how
.
la n guages ori ginated They knew why .
m e n must toil and sweat and why it is ,
that bo ys kill snakes N or was it to these

.
problems o f natur e alone that the religion

o f dogma furnished ready made answers -
these indeed were only episodes in it s main

theme I ts peculiar b oast was that it fur
.
n i sh e d a revelation o f the will of God and
of God s doings in nature and in human

’
history I n the books of the O ld and N ew

.
Testament it possessed the tru th fin al , ,
complete and absolute about all things

, ,
of an yimportance in the life of man and

God These infallible oracl es came from
.
God Himself who inspired the authors

, .
The church was as sure o f the actual

authors as we are o f the writers o f curr ent
literature M oses wrote the P entateuch
.
Solomon wrote E cclesiastes Da vi d wrote

the P salms Job and I saiah composed the
works tha t bear their names .
The arrogance o f this dogmatism is

hastening the close o f the second stage
o f religion I t is the pride of intellect
.
that goes before confusion and disc o m

fit u r e . D ogma
has conjured up the
avenger doubt M en n o w begin where
,
.
,
they ar e tho u ghtful and serious to ,
ask whether religion has not had its“
day whether the future generations

,
will not be godless whether the uni ,
verse which seems to us divine will not

, ,
turn o u t t o be an atheistic machine .
F rance well reflects the Z e i tg e i st ; the

youthful philosopher o f the new genera
tion the late M Guya n has left us a
,
.
,
“
brilliant w ork o n The I rrelig i on o f the

F uture Be the future what it may
.
,
there are few o f the dogmas once held dear

that now strike us as axiomatic Astron “
.
om
y has set the earth spinning dislocated ,
heaven and hell and whirled m an from the ,
centre o f the spatial universe Biology .
and geology have revolutionized o u r views

o f the o r 1 1n o f o u r race and o f the cosmos
g .
History and criticism have made the Bible

a new book o r rather a new collection o f
,
books written for the most par t w e know

, , ,
~
n o t by what authors o r at what dates and ,
put together as a Bible we know n o t o n

, ,
what principle All the o l d landmarks .

,
M oses S olomon Jo b are gone ; and a

, , ,
restless se a of criticism threatens to engulf

religion with the records it a do r e ds This

”
“ ”
is the so called warfare o f science and
-
religion F or him who has eyes to see

“
,
t h e religion of dogma lies exhau sted o n

the field .
S hall we then despair ? L ift up thine

eyes towards the eastern sky and see what
light is breaking just beneath the horizon .
I t is the star which the wise men o f yore

beheld and followed That mildly glow .
ing radiance is the immortal gen1us of r e

!
lig io n . O nce eclipsed by neb u l ous ritual

and dogma it shines now and will shin e
, ,
upon future generations in its o w n in e f ,
fable beauty and purity I tself the breath .

_
of GO d its kindly light will cheer and

,
gladden the hearts of all the children o f

God . R eligion is life and spirit I t has .
long been b u ried beneath creed s and su

r st it io n s of men s device ; it now bursts
’
p e
its cerements and comes forth a glorified

,
reality The decay of dogma is the re su r

.
rection of spiritual religion .
R eligion is life with God ; dogma is a

the o ry o f that life The mistake of the .
theologians has been in supposing that

there could be no religious life without
a correct theory of life As though there .
c ould be no digestion wit h o u t a kno wledge

o f physiology or no im agination without,
a k nowledge o f psychology ! D ogma was

intended t o nourish and support religion
its kindness alas choked and suffocated
, ,
her The creeds were meant to be the

.
defensive fortifications o f religion ; alas ,
that they should have turned thei r artil

lery against the cita del itself But spirit
c annot be captured by mechanism L ife .
-
outlives the theories that would tear ou t

the heart o f its secret .
“
G r au ,
th eu er F r e u n d, ist e Th e o r ie
all ,
de s L e ben s go ld n er B au m
”
Un d gr u n
’
.
The th ird and final stage o f reli gion ,
w hich is n o w dawning upon us cannot ,
be s o easily describe d as its predecessors .
The religion o f cult and the religion o f

dogma are things o f the past : and it is a
striking fact that we never know things
thoroughly till we have gone beyond them
in o u r experience There is a s ort o f .
antinomy between living and knowing .
” ”
Has been not is is the badge o f all
, ,
o u r knowledge especially in the realm o f ,
human life The religion o f t o day th ere

.
-
,
fore will be better un derstood by future

,
inquirers than by us who experience it .
But it seems to me that it may be de

scribed n ot inaccurately and not too
,
-
vaguely as the religion o f spirit Dog

‘
, .
matic religion is retreating ; spir 1t u al r e

lig i o n is advancing Henceforth we shall .
call that man religious who be his belief ,
and knowledge w hat they may is pos ,
sessed o f a sense o f union and fellowship

with G o d I n the coming ages o f per
.
fe c t e d C hristianity religion will be defined

,
as a man s permanent attitude and frame

’
of mind towards the All F ather -

.
But while it is true that we c annot de

,
scribe very adeq uately the religion o f to

day because it is a part of o u r life o f o n e ,
thing we may be assured that it has not ,
broken with the past and will not be alien

t o the future development of religion .
I n the historical world there is no solution

o f continuity The religion o f dogma
.
took up the religion o f cult The R o m an .
C atholic C hurch which holds belief in

,
certain doctrines essential to salvation at ,
the Same time uses ritual for the expres

sion o f its creed and worship S o in the .
religion o f to day though Spirit rises su

-
,
perior to dogma and to cult it does n o t ,

repudiate its convictions o r wage a puri

t ani o w ar against symbol s S piritual r e .
lig io n will part with none o f the elements

which have entered constitutively into the
development o f the religious conscious
ness We must be very careful to define
.
accurately the mutual relations o f the

three stages o f religion They differ not .
,
in elements but in emphasis I n the r e

,
‘
lig io n of cult the emphasis fe ll o n actions

,
o f a certain kind that is o n ritual o bse rv

, ,
an oes The worshippers performed the

.
rites under the influence o f certain beliefs ,
indeed and in a certain frame o f mind ;

,
both o f these ho w ever remained latent

, ,
and unconscious The religion o f creed

.
lays stress o n belief in dogma as essential

to salvation ; but it rej oices in the use o f
symbols and it assumes though not very
, ,
c o n sc 1 o u sl o r explicitly that a sound faith

y ,
and a correct ritual will issue in a pious ,
G o d fearing life
-
N o w in the final devel
.
o pm e n t o f religion it will be explicitly

,
recognized that its primary and c o n st it u

tive element is neither cult n o r creed but ,
’
what I may call the soul s entire attitude
towards the I nvisible — an attitude which
, ,
in it s highest attainment embraces the ,

creature s sense of dependence up on the

’
C reator the child s loving and reverent

’
,
trust in t h e F ather and the man s fellow

,
’
ship with the Divi ne C ompanion who

alone can satisfy the boundles s and im
mortal yearnings of the human spirit .
T o prevent misapprehension it may be ,
noted in passing that spirit u al religion is

something very different from ethical o r
humanitarian culture The enthusiasm o f .
humanity is indeed the certain outcome

, ,
o f deep fellowship with the F ather o f
S pirits as we may see in P aul and L uther

,
and many a less distinguished preacher o f

the gospel I t is a blessed characteristic
.
o f o ur o w n age that religion has come to
e xpress itself so nobly in practical well
doin g But be n e fi ce n c e is not piety To

. .
make the love of m an the essence of relig

ion is to misread the latter and to di vest
,
the former of its supreme spirit u al dy

n am i c I f the religious man is a bene di c
'
tion to earth it is because his soul is

,
bathed in the dews o f heaven .
We have now traced the growth o f

religion as a process in the in di vidual
consciousness and as a product of the o b
e ct ifyin g reason of mankind We have
j .
SPIRITUA L RELIGI ON 1 55
found that as a process religious life

, ,
/
passes from credulity t o do u bt an d from

do ubt to faith ; and that as a product , ,
religion develops from cult to dogma and

from dogm a to spirit These two lines o f
.
development are parallel I n t h e life o f .
the mind doubt is higher than credulity ,
while faith carries us beyond both t o those

indubitable intuitions which are the con
st it u t iv e factors o f intelligence S imi .
l ar ly in the external sphere doctrines a r e

, ,
higher than ceremonies though from the ,
highest standpoint each gives us only the

letter which kills while it is sp1r1t alone
,
that makes alive F i nally credulity and

.
,
doubt correspond t o the religion o f cult

and dogma while open eyed faith and
,
-
’
reasonable hope are the struggling s oul s
response to the religion of spirit I ndeed .
,
spiritual rel i g 1 on which we have described

,
as the late fruit o f the tr e e o f obj ective

institutions and creeds cannot be distin ,
u i sh e d from that highest phase f

g o r e
lig io u s life which in the mind of the

,
individual supervenes upon credulity and

,
doubt At thi s point obj ective and sub

.
j e c t iv e religion are o n e and the same To .
the religion o f spirit therefore ,

—a relig ,
156 SPI RITUA L RELIGION
ion which is in the soul and fo r the soul ,
-
w e may conceive historical progress
and psych ological development alike t o be
t ending When from the leas t to the
.
,
greatest all shall in this way kn ow the

“
”
L ord the millennium in which all good

,
”
,
men b elieve at least as an i deal will actu ,
ally have come upon us .
Towards this goal the race is slowly but

steadily advancing The religion o f cult
.
h as vanished from the civilized worl d .
C ivilization is characterized by a su bo r di
nation o f the physical to the mental it
puts material things to spiritual uses .
The c iv ilize d m an has c om e t o him se lf

~
.
He can no longer be satisfied with mere

external rites and ceremonies They must .
be informed by thoughts The religion .
o f dogma becomes a necessity I t will .
probably long remain a n ecessity ev en for

a considerable portion o f C hristendom .
I t is the religion o f elementary reflection ,
the religion which asks an d answers

questions about the deep thi n gs of God
with equal readiness and assurance I ts .
questions appall t h e critical but its an ,
sw e r s satisfy the multitude I ndeed .

,
dogmatic religion owes its security to the

PIRI TUAL
S RE LIGI ON 57
fact that man yearns for definitive and ex

a c t in fo r m a t io n ab out h i s o w n origin and
e
destiny By a well known psychological

,
-
law the yearning predisposes him t o a o

,
cept any theory but especially o n e claim

,
ing authority and finality The religion .
o f dogma has therefore always appealed

, ,
t o a supranatural revelation Behind this .
intrenchment it is impregnable even in ,
the gross form o f M ormonis m so long as ,
the masses o f mankind are swayed more

by personal hopes and fears than by in
sight and love o f truth But the spirit o f .
inquiry cannot be permanently r epressed

and in recent times it has dared to investi
gate the nature and grounds o f revelation .
The answer o f the R oman C atholic C hurch

was the decree o f P apal I nfallibility The .
effect of this decree was t o reassert the

identit y o f religi on with belief in divinely
revealed doctrine and to furnish an ini al
,
l ibl e expounder and interpreter o f this

doctrine I t committed the large r po r tion
.
o f C hristendom irrevocably to the religion
o f dogma for which indeed it had always

, , ,
con sistently stood in the past The Ro .
man C atholic C hurch rich in the reas ,
sured inheritance of nineteen centuries

~
,
SPIRITUA L RE LIGION
con fronts the rising spirit of liberal relig

ion with a serenity and confidence dis
t u r be d only by contempt .
The summary procedure adopted by the

R oman C atholic C hur ch w as not available
for P rotestantism The reformers had
.
appealed from ecclesiastical authority and

tradition to reason and especially to the
,
Bible They failed to observe that these

.
new authorities could not withdraw them

selves from investigation Th e all de “
.
-
”
stroying Kant dissected the human mind ,
and asserted the incapacity o f reason to

know anything of itself or to demonstrate , ,
even with the aid of other powers the ,
existence of God or the immortality o f

the soul The image o f the Bible which
.
,
P rotestantism adored fell to pieces in the

,
hands o f critics who wrenched from it the

secret o f its origin structure and diversi
, ,
fi e d meaning and purpose We have I .

,
am very sure a nobler Bible th an we lost

,
and a diviner faculty than Kant denied .
But in view of the revolutionary work o f

,
critical science scholarship and philosophy

, ,
a work demanded by the sp irit o f P rot

i
e st a t s
n m — it is no longer p ossible for
,
any P rotestant sect to wave the banner o f

final and inf allible authority in matters of

religion P rotestantism , in all its forms
.
,
or i g inated in the assertion o f creeds o r

polities ; but the spirit o f P rotestantism
has always carried it beyond its starting
points I ts his t ory is the record o f a
.
growing disinclination to that dogmatic

apprehension o f religion which it o w es t o
the C hurch o f R ome .
This tendency can be illustrated by a

glance at the history o f American C hris
t ian it y 1
At the begin n ing o f th e R evo
.
l u t io n the whole number of religious

organizations existing in the C olonies is
estimated to have been about nineteen
hundred and fifty o r o n e for every seven ,
teen hundred souls The creed o f three .
fourths o f these ch urches C ongregational , ,
B aptist P resbyterian and other was C al

, , ,
v in ism ; while o f the remainder some three
hundred churches professed the faith of

the C hurch o f E ngland M ethodism had .
scarcely gained a footing in the country ;

and the C atholics had not more than
twenty six priests with t w ice as many
-
1 Th e h ist o r ical dat a w h ich f ollo w ar e t ak en f r o m

D im a n ’
s O r a t io n s an d E ssa ys, pp .
—
20 1 2 64 .
! Th e
c e n su s is t h at of
16 0 SPIRITUAL RELIGION
congregations I f anyt hing se e m ed pr o b

.
'
able in the future it was the ascendency

,
of the C alvinistic creed .
N o w what American history shows is

the decay o f this creed and with it of , , ,
all merely creedal religion The M etho .
dists who had no ex istence here at the

,
time o f the R evolution are to day the ,

-
largest religious body in the land The .
growth of M ethodism may be attributed

in part t o its e ffective orga nization and
J
in par t t o the missionary zeal o f its

preachers ; but there can be no doubt
that its main source o f success is to be
found in its appeal to the feelings and
in it s disparagement o f the intell ect in
which C alvinism lay intrenched The .
Baptists who are nominally C alvi n ists

, ,
are now as they were at the beginning

,
o f the century second in numerical rank ;

,
but their fundamental principle the ,
Bible the Bible only

,
— taken in con
,
n e c t io n with their polity has enabled ,
them silently to drop the o l d theology

and unconsciously to adjust themselves
to the new s piritual environment The .
C ongregationalists who at the begin

'
, ,
ning o f the R evolution were by far t h e

,
'
strongest a n d most num e rous o f all r e

l ig io u s bodies are n o w one of the minor
“
de nominations in point o f numbers .
With them the process of adaptation

-
1
was more difficult fo r the body had a ,
deeply ingrained and inherited theo

logical habit B u t after pr o du c l n g Uni
.
,
t ar ian ism and Transcendentalism the ,
sturdy mother also made her peace with

the anti dogmatic tendency o f the age ;
-
There remain of the larger denomina

tions who made profession o f the ancient
creed only the P r e sbyt e r l an s And they .
have more than held their o w n during

the century The ste ady gro w th o f this
.
religious body which never at least in , ,
form abated o n e j ot or tittle of its

,
C onfession seems at first sight ir r e c o n c il

,
abl e with the view we are advancing .
But this gro w th is to be attributed not ,
t o the distinctive cre ed but to the wise , ,
orderly and admirably e ffective system

,
of church government by which the ,
P resbyterian body secured t o itself a

full share o f the fruits o f American
C hristianity I ndeed the creed so long
.
, ,
held with the resolute tenacity character

ist ic o f the S cottish race that brought it
‘
M
to these shores has at last come t o be felt

,
as a burden too heavy to be borne It .
must soon undergo revision The result .
bids fair to be as it was in the like case

,
with the C ongregat ionalists a com ,

”
promise document But the right o f
.
a liberal party within the P re sbyterian

C hurch will be established and the last ,
residuum of P rotestant dogmatism will

be officially opened to the leaveni ng in
fl u e n c e s of the religion of sp irit .
I t may be obj ected that while these ,
facts do indeed show the decadence of

the o l d theology they fail to prove the
,
decay of dogmatic religion in general .
The Obj ector however overlooks the all

, ,
important point that the religious move

ment which we have bee n e x am m m g '
was not so much a reaction against C al

v in ism as a protest against the in t e r pr e
t at i o n of C hristianity as a system o f
dogmas . O nly half its meaning can be
read from the modifications which have
been made in the creeds F or those .
creeds which are survivals of dogmatism

, ,
resist like the M atter of P lato s cos

,
’
m o l o g y the transforming breath o f the

,
creative spirit I t is the penalty o f the

.
new that it m ust always settle with

the o l d ; an d fo r th i s reason its true
’
character i s difficult to discern Bu t .
whoever will compare the best preaching

o f the present day with the sermons o f
the earlier part o f the century will be
aware o f an entirely different atmosphere
an d attitude O f doctrine there is now
’
adays scarce a word F uller larger life

.
,
i s the ideal held before us The poten

.
tial communion o f m an with G o d b e ing

assumed as it always has been in religion
, ,
’
the whole strain o f the preacher s discourse
is directed towards quickening that po
t e n c y into activity m aking man s sonship
’
,
vital and spiritual He finds the quint

.
“
essence o f the Gospel in the text I am
come that ye might have life and tha t ye ,
”
might have it more abundantly .
F ew persons who have not the o ppo r

,
t u n it y and the taste fo r verification h ave ,
any idea how sweeping has been the r e

action against the reli gion o f dogma I t .
has gone o n gradually an d fo r the most,
part silently but with the force an d

, ,
e ffi cacy o f a process in n ature The .
revolution with which the modern w orld

has been in travail is now accomplishe d .
16 4 S PIRITUA L RE LIGI ON
Yet the sight of it is a surprise even to

the actors themselves The hand is sub .
dued to w hat it works in and many o f ,
the clergy find it hard to conceive that

the creeds which formed so large a part
o f the material o f their theological train
ing are actually either obsolete o r of minor

consequence But the laity who have
.
‘
ceased to read them are rallying to the ,
support o f practical and spiritual religion .
The goal of this religious m ovement is

i
n ot u n c e r t ain I t is as we have seen

.
, ,
not the religion o f humanity tho u gh ,
humanitarianism is o n e of its m an ife s

t at i o n s N eith er is it simple ethical cult
.
ure th ough it leads to the full exploration

,
and development o f the mo ral nature o f

man There can be no religion without
.
God And o n e great characteristic o f

.
the anti dogmatic religion of the day is

-
the conception of God not as a capricious ,
P ower not as an external L awgiver and

,
Judge but as an I nfinite L ife and S pirit

,
with whom the finite life and spirit that

is ours may have fellowship and find ever
lasting j oy P ersonality in man moves
.
ou t towards personality in God and is ,
met by it The fuller our c o n ce pt io n o f

'
.
personality the truer and deeper will o u r

,
r eligion be . I t was a mistake o f the older

t h e o l o g 1a n s with their love o f formul ae
,
and finality , that they resolved the soul

into a small number o f definable faculties .
I t is o n e o f the many boons we o w e to

recent psychology that it has taught us t o
re c ognize the Vague as well as the Definite
in the life o f the soul Just in proportion
.
as we see and re ference the m yst er 1o u s

depths o f o u r o w n nature sh all w e r i se 1n /
worship o f the E ternal S pirit w h o is its

source and ground S piritual religion is
.
the c o n se l o u s union o f man and God I t .
defines itself only in fh e process o f coming

to be and then only to the subj ects o f
,
this process .
I f the result we have n o w reached ,
along different but converging lines be ,
correc t certain co n clusions follow as corol

,
l a r ie s
. These will serve to characterize
a little more fully what we have ventured
to call the religion o f the future .
F irst spiritual religion will maintain a

,
social organization The church is rooted

.
in the nature o f things I t is the essence

.
o f Spirit t o express itself to manifest i tself,
to others an d to form associatio n s with

“
,
166 SPIRI TUA L RELIGION
them . O f all sh all ow s pecul ations few ,
are more absur d th an t h e assu mpti on that

chur ches ar e the de v i c e of priests and
p ars o ns t h e m e re or g an s of dogm as whose
,
decline the y c ann o t outli ve The f act is .
t h at e v e r v goo d yiel ds it s goo dn e ss o nl y
when sh ar e d w it h other s E ven gro ss

.
m ate rial thi ngs li ke f o od an d drink lose

, .
h alf t h e ir flavor wh e n t ak e n in solitude .
The c o mm on meal is the fir st produ c t of

civili z at i on A r t an d s c ience
the m
.
selves in corpor at e in st itution s whi ch

nour ish an d diffu e th e m The chur ch
s .
,
t o o is es s ent i al to spir it u al life in whi ch

, ,
I f thi s w a s recogni ze d wh e n re li gion

me ant beli e f in dogm a how mu ch more,
e m ph at i c all v sho u l d it be recogn i zed o f

spirit u al r eli gion ! C r e e ds an d ri t u als
spli t m an ki nd int o se ct s ; in spirit u al
r eli gi on men ar e dr aw n together by com
munit y of experience an d asp iration .
The r e li gi o u s m an w il l f e e l ! if he w ill
but thin k of it ) that he i s an organ of a
co m mon life whi ch is t h e spirit of the
,
chur ch uni ver sa l

F ew things seem t o
.
me to be of more pr a ctic al con sequence

for the fu t ur e of religion in Am e ri c a th an
SPIRITUA L RELIGIO N 16 7
the duty o f a ll g ood men t o bo c cI n e iden

t ifi e d with the visible church L iberal
'
.
_
thinke r s have as a rule underestimated

, , ,
the value o f the church Their standpoint .
“
is indivi dualistic as though a man were ,
”
author o f himself and knew n o other kin .
“ ”
The o l d is for slaves they declare , .
But it is also true that the o ld is fo r freed .

;
men w h o know its true uses I t is the .
bane o f the religion o f dog ma that it has

driven many o f the choicest religious souls
o u t o f the churches I n its purification
.
o f the temple it h as lost sight o f the

,
o bj ect o f the temple The church as an.

,
institution is an orga nism and e m bo di

,
ment such as the religion o f sp 1r1t n e ce s

sar il y creates S piritual religion is n o t
.
the enemy it is the e ss ence o f in st it u

, ,
t io n al religion .
S eco ndly ; the religion o f spirit does not

need a unique o r separate s ect S uch a .
limitation would contradict the univer

salit y w hich potentially at least c an e v e n
, ,
now be seen t o characteriz e it I t is a .
P entecostal outpouring which every o n e

“
receives in his o w n t o ngue wherein ,
he was born I t is a leaven working

.
in all the sects I t uses what it finds

.
to hand recognizing frankly th at the

,
churches have gone beyond their starting

points a nd to day move toward goals
,
-
wh ich woul d have been inco n ceivable to

their v a r l o u s founde rs I t pays little
“
heed to the questions o f spec ul ation and

church government o u t o f which the
denominations have ar i sen I t intrenches .
itself in the citadel living o n the best o f

,
terms with ritual and dogma which o c

c u py the outworks The m aintenan ce
‘
.
of this non sectarian attitude which is a

-
,
present note o f spiritual religion may be ,
predicted for the future as it can certainly ,
be asserted o f the past I t is a well

‘
known fact though the meaning o f it has

,
not been apprehended that the decli n e o f ,
dogmatic re ligion in modern times has

given a check to the multiplication o f
sects .The developm e nt o f spi ritual
religion in America has had fo r its con
comitant the consolidation o f the great
existing types o f ecclesiastical organiza
tion . C reedal religion makes sects ;
spiritual religion uses them and in using ,
unites them .
Thirdly spiritual religion will make its

,
home with any o f the religious bodies

which reco gnize it I t will m o r e and

.
more become the condition and the cri

t e r io n o f church membership As at .
the present d ay so presumably in the

,
future there will be in all the churches

,
men who according t o t h e ir v ar io u s char

,
l
a c t e r s and stages o f development stand ,
—
pre eminently for ritual for dogm a o r , ,
,
fo r spirit But the latter class is likely

.
t o increase with considerable rapidi ty .
And it will shape the church o f the fut

u re . The first business o f such m en must
be t o understand and sympathize with
their brethren who have n o t yet escaped
the bondage o f rites an d formul a O ne
?
thing they must n o t do : they m u st n o t

part compan y with them H o w is the .
divinely ordained education o f the human

race to be achieved if the children o f ,
light mass their torches and leave their

less favored brethren in abs olute dark
ness ? Humanity is a school o f spiritual
culture only ! if I may appropriate a fi n e -
thought o f M ar t in e au s) when its mem ’
bers who have a common nature but

,
diversified attainments group themselves ,
into organizations o f like and unlike ,
analogous to that o f the family whic h is ,

SPIRITUA L RELIGI ON
the m iniat u re type o f every moral organ

”
ism . C onsequently if a true C hristian

,
discovers that the creed of his church is

n o longer ten able his plain duty ! other
,
considerations apart) is n o t t o leave the

church but to let his li ght so shine that
,
others may come to a knowledge o f the

fact that the church is not the mere em
bodiment of a creed but the plastic ,
organization o f a life which is spiritual .
H is insight into the re al situation o f afi air s

forbids desertion even though he is aware
,
that fidelity may be rewarded by banish

ment or persecution .
S uch a course is apt to be denounced

both by the religious and by the sec u l ar
press I t is held that the defence is
.
sophistical and disingenuous and that ,
those who plead it are underminin g moral

ity as well as religion N ow I will not “
deny though I w ill not aver that in the

, , ,
case of those hol di ng clerical positions o f

honor and emolument the course here ,
recommended may be unwis e for the ,
si mple reason that their motives may be

misinterpreted by those who are always
”
ready to catch the appearance o f evil
!
“
.
But apart from this consideration o f

,
expediency I se e n o reason why an h o n

,
est man should with draw from a c o m

munion in many o f who se formularies he
has ceased t o believe
“
M y reasons for
.
this conclusion are however very dif

, ,
fe r e n t from those usually adduced To .
read into the articles o f faith propositions

which they never contemplated o r were ,
e ven expressly framed to deny seems to ,
me intellectual jugglery and moral p alter

ing o f the most shameless sort But this
, .
Sophistry is the product o f the religion o f
dogma ; it is the deposit left by the cor

r o sio n o f doubt . P rotestant C hristianity ,
speaking generally ,has put away as we ,
have seen the religion o f dogma and is

, ,
even no w rising to the heights o f spiritual

relig ion T o this religion no o n e can be
true who makes the cree d the condition
o r test o f fellowship Varietie s o f church
.
government have perhaps originated more

sects than varieties o f doctrine and in
the near future it will be thoug ht as
absurd t o leave a church because o n e
disagree s with its detailed formulation o f
doctrine as it would seem t o day to leave
-
it because o n e thinks its system o f go v

e r n m e n t n o t altogether perfect .
D octrine worship and polity will doubt

, , ,
less in the futu re be brought into closer

, ,
harmony with spiritual religion than we

to day But the change will be
”
se e -
.
wrought silently and from within o u t

wards Agitations for the r e vision o f
.
doctrin es and modes of worship are not

desirable if they concentrate attention
,
upon these subor di nate elements o f relig

i on . I i as is fre quently the case they
, ,
he lp many persons to see that there is

something higher they conduce to real ,
progress P lainly the religious bodies

.
,
best organized for development are th ose

which have adopted the principle o f local
independency E ach church can di fferen .
t iat e itself according to t h e requirements

o f its inner life and its outer envir onment .
While the movement from dogmatic t o

Spiritual religion is in progress t hese ,
various I ndependent denominations are !
likely to be the favorite homes o f li beral

C hristianity When o n the other hand
.
, ,
the movement is completed ! if it ever is ) ,
the American preference for stable e c cle si

a st ic al order can scarcely fail to inure to
the benefit of the P resbyte r ian and E pis

”
copal bodies The latter has indeed some.

, ,
advantages F or it has not to the same

.
,
extent enveloped relig ion in dogma and

, ,
thus it cannot suffer so much from des

u am at io n The impressiveness of its
q
liturgy a rid the grace and good sense o f
its forms which in the seventeenth
century filled L aud with a consuming
“ ”
sense o f the beauty o f holiness and ,
i n the nineteenth drew from E merson

“ ”
the comment By taste are ye saved
,
give scope and satisfaction to the ae sthetic

sentiments which in recent t imes have
g ained a very prominent place in the
worship o f all religious bodies . I t is
conceivab le that so m e such organization
as the E piscopal C hu r ch might ultimately
become the catholic organ for that spirit
ual religion which seeks to express itself
in symbols and in creeds But the ex
.
e r ie nc e o f a century suggests that in the

p
four o r five favored and consolidated types
”
of strenuously competing sects we have
,
a diversity founded u pon ineradicable dif

fe r e n c e s in the religious life of o u r people .
F ourthly spiritual religion w ill lead to a

,
modification if n o t to an abandonment o f
, ,
the conception of authority in religion .
Autho rity is properly predicated o f a sov

c reig h He has the right o r at an y rate

.
, .
the p ower o f enforcing his comm ands

, .
’
But if the ruler s will is law to his sub
!
e c t s it is only o n condition that i t lim it

j ,
itself t o prescribing o r prohibiting certain

kinds of actions N ot even a despot can
command the thoughts and the spirit o f a
man I t is for conduct alone that the
.
sovereign is an authority Accordingly .

,
we conclude that in so far as r eligion is

conceived as consisting of act s o r o bse r v
an c e s — and these constitute the relig
,
ion o f c u l t it is proper t o speak o f an

,
authority in religion I n the se cond place

.
,
the term authority is metaphorically

predicated o f specialists who have mas
t e r e d the facts and laws of any particular
field of investigation E dison is thu s an .
authority in applied electricity Huxley in ,
physiology a n d Z eller i n Greek P h il o so

,
phy These masters tell me what I should

.
belie ve in their s pecialties and I accept ,
t h eir teachings I f in the same way I

.
, ,
recognize a man or a co u ncil o r a book as

competent to lay do w n valid propositions
in theology the man or the council o r the
,
book is to me an authority Those who .
identify religion with belief in dogma are

SPIRITUA L RELI GION 17 5
within t h e lin e o f possibilities when they

’
speak o f authority in religion ; that there

is such an authority h owever is n o t a
“
, ,
conse quence Of the inherent admissibility

o f the conception .
But if it is not impossible to think o f

an external authority even a final and
“
infallible o n e for the religion o f cult and

t h e religion o f creed it is a contradiction
,
in terms to su ppose that there can be u lt i f
mately at least any authority for spiritual

,
religion outside the soul which experiences

it Autonomy not heteronomy is the way
.
, ,
o f the spirit .But since we rise to spirit

ual life through succe ssive s tages o f devel
o pm e n t ! for the baby is only potentially
a spirit ) the agencies which stimulate and

,
incite us to self realization may in a de

-
,
r iv a t iv e sense be designated the a u t h o r i

,
ties fo r o u r religious culture Without .
them we should n ot have reached the

stature of perfect men o r acquired the ,
freedom whereby the spirit becomes its

o w n sole and absolute au t hority This .
relig i ou s experience is paralleled by t h e

moral The source o f moral obligation
.
fo r the child and for the undeve lo ped

adu lt is the will o f the family of society , ,
SPIRITUA L RELIGION
”
of the state and even of God The virtu

,
.
o u s man o n the other hand knows t hat

, , ,
while he is a fellow worker with all the

-
moral forces human and divine in the

, ,
universe duty would bec ome mere legal

,
o r mechanical obligation could any o n e
impose it upon the free spirit but itself .
Yet if the go o d man is also a phi losopher ,
he must recognize that that free spirit

could never have come to itself that the ,
individual could never have de veloped into

a personality but for his training in and
,
through society and under law to both o f ,
which he has nevertheless in course o f

, ,
time come to feel his own moral essence

,
to be superior .
Just as law and society are authorities

in morality so the Bible and the church
'
are authorities in religion Through these .
disciplines we make o u r way — a t least

.
—
some do to the higher altitudes of free
and self supporting moral and religious
-
life But many fail to reach this stage ;

.
and even those who succeed wo u l d surely

fall if deprived o f the guides and helps
,
that led and aided their steps .
The function of the Bible and the church

is in this regard educative The noble st
, , .
souls will feel most deeply their value as ,
they would be the last to belittle the func

tion o f law and society in the moraliza
tion o f mankind By its worship even
.
.
,
if it be merely formal the church puts,
men in the mechanical attitude o f piety ;

and owing to t h e wonderful connection
,
between o u r mind and our motor mechan

ism the muscular exercise reacts upon
,
consciousness and quickens the germ s o f

religious life : N o doubt P ascal carried
the matter to an extreme when he coun ,
se ll e d men to take holy water and observe
cerem onies as if the rest would come o f

,
itself But the general principle is sound

.
it is the foundatio n o f the histrionic art ;

and o n e o f o u r most eminent psych o lo
gists has come t o the conclusion that jo y
and sorrow are the effects n o t the causes
, ,
o f laughing and o f crying B ut besides .
its ritual the church has its articles o f

,
faith The memorizing o f these stands

.
in much the same relation to sp iritual

religion as the learning o f the multipli
cation table t o the reasonings o f the origi
nal mathematician L astly no description
.
,
could well exaggerate the value o f the

Bible as an agency fo r the deve l opment
N
178 SPIRITUA L RELIGIO N
”
of spirit u al religion in the Soul This .
religion emerges when the human and the ,
Divine spirit meet and embrace N o w .
the Bible is a record on a large scale o f , ,

’
man s reaching o u t after God and o f God s ’
communication o f Him self to man I t r e .
veals God as inflexible righteousness and

as infinite love What a glass it is through
.
which to see the ever living God ! But -
how useless when yo u put your eyes o u t

,
A scholar who is the orname n t o f a great

,
chur ch was r ecently o n trial for heresy be

,
cause o f his contenti on that the Bible the ,
church and the soul ! or what he calls

,
reason are the three sources o f author .
ity in religion His accusers assert there

.
is only o n e ultimate authority I f the .
foregoing analysis be correct neither party ,
has the whole truth an d each h as a por

tion There is only one ultimate author
ity in religion —w e mean spiritual and
.
not dogmatic religion — and this is the ,
free spirit o f man which finds itself in

life with God The Bible and the church
.
,
it is true are in a certain sense au t h o r i

, , ,
ties they have the authority o f peda

o u e s who train us up to t h e religion o f
g g
” ”
spirit The terms authority
. finality , ,
infallibility and the like are however

, , , ,
a ll borro w ed from t h e r e l ig io n o f dogma .
They are all inapplicable t o the highest

stage o f reli g i on which i s n o t an objective
,
fact but a subj ective attitude

,
— an ever
tending never ending process o f c om

,
-
munion with G o d .
F ifthly and lastly the religion o f spirit

, ,
will be n Ot only theistic but C hristian ,

.
C hristian ity affirms that God and man

exist fo r o n e another that human be ings
!
are children o fthe Divine F ather who loves

them with an exhaustless love and that ,
they find their blessedness in a c o r r e spo n

dent love o f Him This was the gospel .
‘
o f Jesus o f N azareth and it is the fo u n da

,
tion o f all spiritual religion But there is .
another sense in which as I believe the , ,
religion o f the future will be C hristian .
S om e liberal thinkers indeed have come , ,
to the conclusion that the personality o f

the author o f C hristianity is a matter o f
in difi e r e n c e t o o u r relig ious life if we are ,
n ot depr i ved o f his noble and exalte d

teachings O thers would be satisfied with
.
a good example But this position I hold t o

.
be erroneous L ike the religion o f dogma

.
,
it springs from an inadequate conception

oi the so u l as mere i ntellect feedi ng upon

truth But the soul is living spirit I t
. .
grows and realizes itself by contact with

spirit I am moved more by my vision of
.
the personality of Jesus than I am by my

thought of His doctrines S piritual growth
.
is brought about by the impact o f nobler

souls o n ours C onsequently I cannot
.
,
understand the Voltaire like pet u lance -
with which in his Divinity S chool A d

,
“
dress E merson banished t h e person of
,
Jesu s from genuine religion He thinks .
“
that you cannot be a man if you must
subordinate yo u r nature t o C hr ist s nat ’
”
ure . I t seems to me however that you
, ,
reali z e your capacities only by coming into

contact with their realization in others .
The o bje c t ifi e d self reveals th e subj e ctive

aptitude and with the thrill of discovery
begins the higher development S piritual .
growth is the attainment o f those who c o n

st an t ly look up to higher pe r sonalities .
N ow if it is true o f Jesus C hrist ! as E mer

so n says in the address ) that alone in all
history he estimated the greatne ss o f
,
man o n e man was tr u e to what is in you

”
and me then I should say that you and
,
I are t o find o u r o w n highest life by open

ing ou r souls to the influence o f this per

fe c t and absolute personality . N ay as ,
J e Su s C hrist was perfect man so also and

, ,
fo r that very reason was He the revelation

,
and realization o f the Divine F ather I n .
the new dispensation o f spirit as in the

,
o l d o f dogma He must therefore in some

, , ,
sense if not the orthodox sense continue

, ,
t o be o u r M ediato r and S aviour .

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C O PY R I GH T 1 896 , BY

quic k e n e d, e xcep t it die .

of this new academic year better mini ster ,

to yo u r spiritual n e e ds than by inviting

the vital doctrines o f the distinguished

a third o f a century he has been a fruitful

lu st r io u s ornament I t was o n S aturday

June 29t h t hat P rofessor Huxley passed

away encountering the great mystery

which closes the continuous mystery o f

His death is a severe and but for his work

it would be an irreparable loss to the r e ,

public o f thought and science And in ,

voicing t he sincere regret we all feel at

charging what you will perhaps permit me

if it is not presumptuous my personal ap ,

preciation of his abilities and att ainments

the apostolic zeal and earnestness with

more eagerly as I am constrained to dissent

Thomas Henry Huxley was born o n the

was somewhat irregular While still a

bo y he had a strong desire to be a mechan

ical engineer and if his architectonic g e

nius clear intellect and enthusiastic and

aggressive energy had been enlisted in the

say what he might not have achieved but

civilization is nourished by heat would ,

sti ll be guilty of the st upid and wanton

not destined that Huxley should solve

and in the ﬁrst M E examination at the

University o f L ondon he took hono r s in

engineering did n o t leave him ! the arena

He cared littl e about medicine as the art

io l o g y co nceived as the mechanical engi

genius o f a Watt or E dison he set him

diverse living beings and the modiﬁcations

his t astes an d ambition The captain o f

H e r M ajesty s ship R a t t le sn a k e which had

been ordered to make a surveying voyage

surgeon a m an who knew somethi ng o f

r al ist and Arctic explorer Huxley was ,

given the appointment F or more than .

as Darwin and Hooker had done before

coasts of Australia and N ew Guinea .

The communications he sent home won

a professorship o f either P hysiology o r

friend Tyndall he turned his eyes to the

N ew World ; but the Un iv e r sit y o f T o

ronto in which at the same time they be

came candidates for the vacant chairs o f

ever S ir Henry De la Beche t h e Director

General of the Geological S urvey offered ,

H u xley the post of P al aeontologist and L ect

u r e r on History wh ich F orbes had

was divided between his allegiance to

so r sh ip He frankly told S ir Henry t hat

he did not care for fossils and that he

as General Grant said o n publishing his,

M emoirs after having determined never

are but few important e vents in the a ffairs

N ot only did Huxley become L ecturer on

thirty o n e years ; and o f his scientiﬁc work

a large part is pal ac o n t o l o g ic al ! I ndeed ,